Spirited Survival Amidst the Fusillade
by SesameTofu
Summary: The last thing you would expect after dozing off at university would be sequestered, thrown in a completely different land and left to your own devices. With my non-existent skills put to a test I could never foresee, I must now adapt myself to this new life and prosper lest I meet with a terrible fate.
1. Chapter 1

"Phew, thank goodness it's finally over." I sigh in satisfaction as I look at my finished homework.

Spending a Friday night's sleep at my university to finish the activities I had to turn in paid out, this time at least. My vision was slightly hazy as my body begged me to have some shut-eye, and I would be more than happy to comply were it not for the fact that it was still dark outside and I had nobody to accompany me on the way back home. At that moment, I remembered why I hardly ever used this study room to get my work done: the internet restricted access to gaming platforms and I wasn't allowed to sleep in it. Wait a moment…

Now that I think about it, those actually were GOOD reasons to use the study room, the "restricted access internet" being especially useful for easily distracted people like me. After packing my stuff, I looked around the room searching for any potential forms of life: only empty tables, chairs and disconnected desktops surrounded me. My wristwatch had 03:27 written on it. I still had some time to kill before the sun rose and I didn't know how to spend it. I could play some offline game on my laptop or my 2DS, but I wasn't in the mood. I could listen to the radio, but there were only music channels and zero news channels at this part of the country.

That left "taking a nap" as the only option. The only people inside this university this late at night are me and a security guard, who is probably patrolling far away, looking for any suspicious activity. Even then, if he caught me sleeping, the worst that could happen would be me getting scolded and having my ID requested for filing a report on how I dared to take a nap inside an empty study room and how my snoring disrupted the study session of absolutely no one in particular.

Setting some of the chairs side by side, I lay my body down on them, my back facing the floor and my hands resting on my chest. With the help of the air-conditioner, it wasn't long before I fell asleep on the makeshift bed of hard wooden chairs.

During my peaceful nap, I felt as if I was floating on air, which made for a relaxing experience. After a while, I wake up slowly, stretching myself, yawning, looking at the numerous eyes in the distance that are staring at me and… I stop everything to let it sink in for a moment, and after a brief pause it hits me. Why were those eyes staring at me? Why am I floating in an empty space? How did get here to begin with?! I try to look around me for anyone who might be nearby, only to find nothing but those eyes staring at my soul. Man, this is Yume-Nikki levels of creepy, but I must stay brave in the face of those eyes that have no face and return my gaze full force! Our looks clash in a battle of endurance, lasting for what it looks like to be an eternity, but it only lasted about 7 seconds before I decided to look away. All the while, they were still at it.

"Tch, tryhards. Sooo, am I going to stay here until the end of time or what?" I say to no one else in particular.

Almost as if to answer my question, a tear is opened out of nowhere, pulling me towards it. There was a beautiful landscape on the other side, which looked nothing like home to me. A vast sea of trees covered the land, save for a few mountains. I am forced through the portal and after exiting it, the force of gravity, which was practically nonexistent ever since I woke up, remembered its role and made me enter a state of free fall. I could only look in horror as the portal I came from closes and I approach the ground at dangerous speeds!

"My Lord, save me!" I cry out in fear, desperation evident in my voice.

I brace myself as branches, both thick and thin, hit me from all sides, rolling me around as I fall through the thick foliage. Once I'm past them, the firm ground greets my back with a heavy impact, making grit my teeth in pain and my vision go hazy.

Laying on the ground now and breathing heavily, I weakly raise my shaking hand and give a thumbs up to the sky. "T-thanks… heheheh…heh…ugh." My hand goes limp shortly thereafter.

How the heck did I get into this situation to begin with? From sleeping in my university's study room to waking up in a dimension of eyes to falling in a forest. I had some weird days in my life, but none were so weird as today. To make things worse, I didn't know where I was and my backpack was nowhere to be seen, not that it would be a good thing if it came with me to this place, since the fall would have most likely broken most if not all of the electronics inside it.

The sound of distant footsteps to my right grab my attention. "…I believe the sound came from here…" I hear the voice of a female approaching. The footsteps kept getting closer and closer until a girl came from behind some bushes. She appeared to be in her early-20s wore a light pink dress and had blonde hair, which came up to her shoulders, a large red ribbon and hair pins garnishing it. Upon finding me, her curious look changes to one of shock.

"Oh my goodness, are you alright?!" She worriedly asks as she rushes to my side and kneels to take a better look at me.

"N-not much, to be honest… Tha-that fall h-hurt quite a b-bit." I manage to speak between deep breaths.

"Hold still for a moment." She gently orders as she feels my arms, legs and chest. "I don't think your bones seem are fractured, so I'll bring you to my house and treat you there. Just hang on, alright?" She picks me off the ground and carries me away bridal style. "Hmm, quite light." I barely hear her mumble to herself.

After a while, the girl tries to strike up a conversation. "So, how did you get here? Humans are kind of uncommon around here."

"I don't think you would believe me if I told you, but…"

She looks me in the eyes, her expression somewhat serious. "You're not going to lie to me, right?"

I slightly raise my hands. "N-no! I'd never do that!"

"Then you can tell me, even if it sounds absurd. I will hear you out, I promise." The look on her face softens with my response as she reassures me with a smile, making me heat up a little. Man, she's really cute now that I've stopped to take a better look at her! Anyway, she quietly listens to me as I explain to her everything about what happened up to this point.

"An empty void with nothing but eyes, huh? I think I have an idea as to who brought you here."

"Really? Who do you think did this?" I curiously ask.

"Ummm, is it ok if we discuss this once you're patched up? Look, we've already arrived." She nods her head ahead of her.

I turn my head to see it and there it was. Her home was a little shack. Its run-down state of preservation indicated how long it had been standing, which can only I presume was a lot of time. The white painting had started to peel off long ago, leaving most of the brown planks exposed. The roof looked like someone had started a garden project on it, but stopped midway through. The glass from the windows were somewhat faded, but still decent nonetheless. In spite of those shortcomings, it managed to retain its "charm", blending in with the forest surrounding it while looking kind of rustic. The girl walks to the doorstep and gently pushes the door open with one of her feet, the hinges creaking as if begging to be drenched in oil. Once inside, she wastes no time in setting me in a bed.

"I'm gonna fetch some medicine. Try not to move for now, you hear me?" She scurries to a shelf, grabbing some pots and comes back, sitting by the side of the bed. "Here, stretch your arms for me." I do just as requested. "This might sting a little. Try to endure it." Some salve is applied on my scrapes and cuts. I wince a bit as they start stinging, meaning the medicine was hopefully doing its job. It even had the refreshing smell of mint! She kept at it until all my wounds were treated.

"All taken care of!" The girl happily announces as she puts away the medicine and sits on a chair by my side.

"Thank you for taking care of me, miss." I smile at her, my pain now almost gone.

"Think nothing of it. I'm just glad you're ok now!" She returns the smile before recalling something. "Oh, that's right! I haven't presented myself yet! My name is Rin Satsuki, nice to meet you!" She bows politely, her hair decorations swaying along with her head.

"W-well, my name is... Nakamura. The pleasure is all mine! Anyway, you told me you know who brought me here. Mind filling me in now?"

She shakes her head. "Not at all. You see, there is this person called 'Yukari Yakumo'. From what I know, she's able to create gaps that act as portals between two places and they're not limited to Gensokyo."

I raise my hand. "Hold on a minute. Gensokyo? You mean I'm not home anymore?"

"I don't know what you mean by 'home', but we're currently in Gensokyo, the land of fantasy."

Gensokyo? Land of fantasy? Is this even Earth anymore? "I don't remember it appearing in any maps I've seen…" I scratch my head in confusion.

"That's because it's not accessible by normal means."

"So I'm in a secret part of the world, in a manner of speaking?"

"Yes, that's right."

"Do you know of any way to go back to the 'outside world'?"

She thinks deeply before answering me. "Nothing seems to come to my mind."

I slump on the bed, groaning in frustration. "Oh great. Now I'm stuck in here too."

"If you want to, you can stay here with me until you find a way back!" Rin tries to reassure me.

"Are you sure about this? I don't want to be a burden to you..." I humbly try to make her reconsider her offer.

"You're not a burden to me! And even if you were to leave, how would you manage to survive out there by yourself?"

She was right about that. I was on a completely different land with no apparent way of returning home. This was probably my only chance of surviving here for now. "Good point. Then I guess I'll stay in your care for the time being. Call me if you need something from me, and…" I bashfully avert my gaze from her. "…thank you for sheltering me."

Rin smiles as she stands up. "Think nothing of it! I'd love it if you helped me with some of the household chores, but for now, all you have to concern yourself with is recovering from your injuries!" She makes her way to the kitchen... "I'm gonna prepare something for us to eat, just wait a moment." …and starts to quietly hum to herself as she walks away. I stare at her back as she leaves the room. Rin had been nothing but nice and welcoming to me since she found me at the forest, going out of her way to treat my injuries and make me feel comfortable overall. From what I've seen so far, she appears to be a very gentle and homely person, not to mention cute; and I have to admit that the personal attention, her gentle touch as she applied the salve and chatting with her was really enjoyable.

Laying in the bed, my thoughts take me home: How would my roommate react to my absence? Did my backpack stay back at the university? There were so many things in my mind right now and they only seemed to increase.

 _I should just set those worries aside and relax for now._ Closing my eyes, sleep easily takes over me after a while.

*** Third person POV ***

Rin happily hummed to herself as she sliced some vegetables, stopping from time to time to think about that young man who was now resting on her bed. How long had it been since she had a guest in her house? Honestly, she not even knew anymore. Ever since "that incident", she had decided to live away from everyone else, and although she didn't regret her decision, loneliness often tormented her mind. Fortunately, she now had found someone to keep her company, and it was a guy, of all people! He appeared to be very polite and friendly and even offered to help her if needed; so many things they could do together! That would have to wait, though; for now, he needed to recover his energies.

*** Nakamura's First person POV ***

I am awakened by the feeling of my arm being gently nudged. Standing to my left is Rin, who's holding a plate and a fork.

"Lunch is ready!" She holds it out to me.

"T-Thanks..." I gladly accept it after shifting myself to a sitting position, still a bit sleepy from the all-nighter.

Steamed vegetables, cooked pork, rice and mashed potatoes. Just the look of it made my mouth water in anticipation and, after silently consecrating the food, I wasted no time in wolfing it down.

"Try to take your time chewing the food properly. A bellyache won't do you any good." Rin points out to me.

"Sorry; the food's so delicious it's hard to contain myself." I praise her cooking skills while eating with gusto.

She giggles. "Well, I'm glad you like it!"

"So, Rin. A few hours back, you said 'youkai'. What exactly did you mean by this?"

"You see, Gensokyo is mostly inhabited by youkai. Compared to them, humans are few and far in between; the only place that has a lot of them is a village a bit far from here.

"What is a youkai anyway? I've heard that term before but never bothered to look deeper into it.

"Youkai can be defined as folklore creatures, supernatural beings and the like."

"Should I be wary of them?" I ask her, not knowing what to expect.

"Some of them do attack humans, so you should be careful."

That's not very comforting... "So, what does a youkai look like?"

"Like humans." Rin points to herself. "I am a youkai, in case you didn't notice; a Kirin, to be more specific."

My face now had a look of disbelief. "Whaaaaaat? No way, you could have fooled me!" Whatever a 'Kirin' is, but yeah… "Hey, can you show me that village you talked about tomorrow?"

She nods her head. "Sure. I have some things I've got to buy there too."

Having finished eating, I return the plate to Rin, who takes it away.

The rest of the day was uneventful and night soon came. Being in a secluded shack in the middle of a forest meant there was no electricity, so Rin had to rely on candles for illumination . Only the sounds of insects could be heard outside, giving me an ominous feeling. There were probably hostile youkai outside the house and, although just thinking of it gave me chills, it'd be wise of me to rest more, since tomorrow would be a long day.

I decide to turn in for the night Laying my head on the pillow, I let myself go to sleep.

I wake up to the sounds of birds chirping and the smell of cooking meat. I look around the room and hear sounds coming from the kitchen; I walk towards it, stopping in the doorway. There was Rin in front of the stove. She apparently noticed my presence, despite my complete silence (some sort of Youkai 6th sense?) and turned her head to look at me.

"Good morning!" She turns her attention back to the food cooking on the frying pan. "Did you sleep well tonight?"

"Yes, I think my scrapes are getting better too." I take a look at my arms, and they are indeed better than yesterday.

"That's good to know, now take a sit. I'm making breakfast for us." She motions to an old wooden table and some chairs.

I pull one of the chairs and sit on it.

*CREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAK* _Holy crap, how old is this thing?! I feel like it's gonna collapse under my weight at any moment! I cringe and try my best to stay still, not wanting to incur its wrath again._

After a while, Rin arrived with two bowls of hot cooked rice and fish, set them on the table and sat on the opposite side.

*CREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAK* _Fuck! That one almost made my ears bleed!_

"Come on, no need to be shy. Here!" One of the bowls is pushed near me, along with a pair of chopsticks. I hold the bowl with my right hand and the chopsticks with my left hand.

Now, I may not be very skilled at eating with them, but I'm not helpless either. A fork would be nice, though.

We proceeded to have breakfast. Not a single word was spoken during that time, but it didn't felt awkward at all. In fact, that made for a relaxing experience; the delicious food combined with the silence inside the cabin and the sounds of nature outside only helped accentuate that feeling.

"Hey Nakamura." I turn my head to look at Rin. "Yes?"

"How was your life back in the outside world?" She has a curious look on her face.

"I'd say it was fairly quiet. I was a college student living away from my parents. There's really nothing special about it."

"College? What is that?"

"An institution of higher learning. It comes after school if you intend to pursue a higher education."

"Oh, so that makes you a scholar, right?"

I shrug. "That's one way to put it, I guess. What about you?"

"I used to work as a nurse back in the village far from here…"

I look at my arms and then back at her. "That explains how you were able to treat my wounds without any trouble."

She waves one of her hands in dismissal. "Oh please; those scrapes were nothing. In fact, I find it weird that you only managed to get those after falling from so high."

 _I fell on my back hard too, you know…_ "Yeah, I think that was pretty strange." I try to return to the previous topic. "Anyway, why did you stop working there?"

"W-well, I… um…" She nervously averted her gaze to the ground, trying to come up with something to say. _I don't think I should have asked that._

"Sorry, that was nosy of me. You don't need to tell me if you don't want to." I stop her before she can say anything more.

"That's fine. Nowadays I live a self-sufficient life, for the most part."

"That must be really hard, depending only on yourself." To say that I was amazed was an understatement. I couldn't ever think of myself living like that.

"You get used to it over time. I even have a small plantation in my backyard." She rises from her seat. "Come on, let's prepare ourselves to go to the village."

I point to myself. "Hey, I'm pretty ready here. It's not like I slept in pajamas or anything."

"Good, then stay here. I'll be right back." Rin walks to the bathroom and closes the door.

I turn back to the table and stare at it. Man, I really wish my backpack was here with me; a lot of gadgets were inside it and they would be really useful at killing my boredom. After a a few minutes, Rin comes out of the bathroom and motions me to follow her. I get up and follow her outside the house.

"So, how long it will take to get there?" I stare at Rin as she starts to lock the door.

"About…" She stops, probably to think about how long it will take. "…no more than 10 minutes, if we go really fast." The door is locked by the time she gives her answer.

 _Hold on a minute._ "Didn't you say yesterday that the village was a bit far from here?" The information simply doesn't add up in my mind.

She turns to me, a deadpan look in her face. "Yes, I did. What about it?"

"How is 10 minutes supposed to be 'a bit far'? I mean, walking fast for 10 minutes is almost nothing." I've walked for much longer than that before.

Rin looks at me confusedly. "Wait, who said we're going to walk there?"

Now it was MY turn to be confused; and even more than before. "So we're not walking there? Hold on…" I stop to think for a moment; meanwhile, Rin keeps staring at me, patiently waiting for a response. After a brief pause, a figurative lamp lights up above my head as I come to a conclusion! "Oh, I get it now!" I smile broadly at Rin, finally figuring everything out. "I had no idea you had a car, Rin!" I confidently point to myself with my right thumb. "If you want to, I can drive you there, no problem. I may not have my driver license with me, but I passed the driving test on my first try, and during a heavy rain!" I approach her face and lower my voice. "Um… the car's transmission is manual, right?"

She looks at me, more confused than before, for a moment and shakes her head. "I don't have a 'car'; I don't even know what that is, much less this 'transmission' thing".

"Then… we're using a bicycle?" _Crap, I don't really know how to ride a bicycle! I'll die of embarrassment if I have to tell her that!_

She sighs and shakes her head again. "I don't have a bicycle, although I know what that is."

At that moment I reached a certain point. A certain point where I was extremely confused; so confused that I ended up hurting myself in my own confusion.

*SLAP*

I slump my shoulders and look at Rin in defeat. "Ugh… I give up. How are we supposed to get there then?"

She smirks at me… "Don't move, OK?" …then walks behind me and holds me by my underarms.

"Hey, what are you going to d- AAAAAAaaaahh!" I'm taken by surprise as we suddenly shoot to the sky!

"So, what do you think?" Rin giggles as we fly through the air.

"HOLY CRAP, RIN! DON'T LET GO OF ME, I BEG OF YOU!" I yell in fear as I look at the ground far below us.

She bursts into laughter. "Ahahahaha! Don't worry, I won't drop you! Try to calm down, though; I want you to enjoy the trip!"

"How am I supposed to calm down if the only thing keeping me from falling to the ground and becoming a pancake are your arms?!" I ask her, irritated and in a panic.

"Hmm…" She thinks for a moment before coming up with a response. "You should start with deep breaths; those always help. Next, try looking at the landscape; there are so many beautiful things around us I don't even know where to start!"

"Right…" I start with the deep breaths, feeling myself calm down little by little. "Now the landscape..." I remind myself of the steps and look around.

To my right, was small area encircled by purple trees, a road coated in a deep red color leading there. Those colors really stood out from the rest of the land surrounding it, which was grass-green. To my left was a sea of trees, a lone house standing outside the forest, appearing to act as some sort of convenience store by the side of the road. In the distance was a big mountain; it towered over everything around it, had a layer of ice coating its summit and was surrounded by trees at its base. A building of some sorts stood further down the peak. Lastly, a village could be seen in the distance; a wall surrounded it, appearing to offer protection from any potential invaders. This land was truly beautiful; a shame that I didn't have my cellphone with me to take a picture of it. The sensation of flying like this felt much different from watching through the window of an airplane: the feeling of liberty, the air caressing my face... I close my eyes, entering a calm state of mind; it doesn't even feel like I am far from the ground.

"Look! We're almost there!" Rin informs me of our current progress, and I open my eyes again.

I look up at her. "Say, are we going to fly over the wall and land in the middle of the plaza?"

She shakes her head… "Nah, we're entering through the front gate." …and starts lowering her altitude.

We gently land on the stony road, not far from our destination.

"That trip was really pleasant." I'd rather stay on the ground for a while, though.

"Good to know, because we're gonna do that every time we need to come here. Now, let's go." Rin starts walking to the gate, with me right behind her.

Next to the gate was a guard. He was wearing leather armor, had a naginata in his hands, a sheathed sword was strapped to his belt as a secondary weapon and he had a stoic look on his face that turned antagonistic after seeing us approaching. There is no need to state that, but I'll state it anyway: this guy didn't look like the type of person you'd like to get on the bad side.

As we approached the gate, he motioned for us to stop, and we did just as instructed. He walk to us, weapon in hand.

"What business does a youkai such as you have here in this village?" His face had a stern look on it.

I slightly raise my hand. "Um… I'm not a youkai."

His attentions shifts to me. "Yes, I know that. From your clothes, you must be one of those 'outsider'; the one I'm talking about…" He points to Rin. "…is that friend of yours."

Turning my head to Rin, I silently observe as she sighs deeply and attempts to reason with the guard. "I'm here to buy some supplies, nothing more."

He continues to glare at her... "If it were up to me, you wouldn't be allowed even to set foot in here." …and then looks back at me. "Hey kid, you should be careful with her; this youkai will get you in deep trouble one day, maybe even killed."

 _What the hell?_ Was this man being rude to Rin just because she was a youkai? It's true that humans are a minority here and are hunted by some youkai, but this is getting ridiculous, even more so because I knew she wasn't the type of youkai to do something like that.

I take a step towards him, annoyed at his hostility. "Is that so? Because I'll have you know this youkai saved my life recently and that she has my utmost trust!" I take a glance at Rin to see her staring surprised at me, then back at the guard.

He just stares at me blankly, and I keep my face serious, unwilling to stand down. All of a sudden, he starts laughing out loud. "AHAHAHAHAHAH! Oh man!" He stops to catch his breath. "Kid, you… you have made my day with that one just now!" He walks back to the gate and opens it, his laughter dying down. "Heh… Here, you may enter the village. But seriously, though! Don't say I didn't warn you." He goes back to leaning against the wall.

Not wanting to stay around any longer, I pass the gate, with Rin right behind me.

** To be continued **

Author's note:

Hello everyone, this is SesameTofu writing to you! I figured I should give writing a try after reading some of the other fics on this site. After a LOT of time spent on writing, re-writing and proofreading the chapter, I decided to post it here.

The "Spirited" part of the title of this fanfic is related to both the protagonist's personality and something that is going to become one of the key aspects of him slowly becoming better over time.

For those that don't know, Rin Satsuki was planned to be the third playable character in "Touhou 6 – the Embodiment of Scarlet Devil", but got scrapped during development due to time constraints. The way she was described in this story is not really her canon appearance. (Those traits actually belong to a Team Shanghai Alice "poster girl" that appeared in a circle cut to promote Touhou 6.) For convenience reasons, I will be using the circle cut girl as her canonical depiction.

This is my first attempt at writing fanfiction and English is NOT my first language, so I am open to constructive criticism on how I could improve this story. I will be releasing one chapter per week to a (currently) total amount of three. After that, I'll decide what to do next based on the reception it gets. That's all for now. Have a nice day!

Writing start date: 09/10/17

Writing finish date: 27/10/17

Post date: 01/06/18 (The time between finishing writing the chapter and posting is the time spent making changes.)

Total number of words in this chapter: 5162


	2. Chapter 2

Looking around me, I felt as if I was not living in the "contemporary" part of human history anymore. Pedestrians walked around chatting with one another, street vendors loudly announced their products, looking for their next patron and children ran after each other without a care in the world; all of them were clad in traditional Japanese clothing; the entire village looked like something you would find during Japan's Edo period. I noticed I stood out a lot, not only because my clothing was very different from the rest (blue T-shirt, short jeans and leather sandals), but because people JUST WOUDN'T STOP LOOKING AT ME. They just stared and whispered between themselves, not bothering to greet us or anything. Becoming increasingly annoyed by their attitude, I decide to take action.

"HELLO THERE!" I turn to a random group of people who were looking at us and greet them loudly.

It seemed to do the trick, as they quickly scattered and went back to doing whatever they were doing.

"Whew…" I turn to Rin, who seemed to be a bit better. "Are the people here always like this?"

"Outsiders are not something they see every day." She pauses for a moment. "You are not the only one they were looking at, too. The presence of a youkai here makes them uncomfortable, even if said youkai means no harm to them."

"Isn't that a bit extreme?" I ask her, wanting to know her opinion on this.

She looks ahead of us, saddened by the reality of her situation. "Maybe, but considering that many youkai are stronger than the average human and that some actively attack them, the people here have every reason to be terrified of me."

I pat her on the back, trying my best to cheer her up. "Don't worry. I'm sure that if they got to know you better, they wouldn't be afraid anymore."

She looks back at me, her eyes shining a little bit with hope. "You… think so?"

Without hesitation, I nod my head. "Of course! I haven't known you for very long, but ever since you found me in the woods, you've been nothing but kind and welcoming to me. You're a great person... youkai."

Upon hearing this, her cheeks heat up and she looks away, embarrassed. "Ah, t-thank you…" And a few moments after that, she regains her composure. "O-okay, let's go to the market now."

"So, what exactly are we gonna buy?" _She never told me what we needed, as far as I remember._

She pulls out a grocery list from somewhere inside her dress and checks it. "First we're going to buy some leek and then…" She raises her head and her voice trails off as she looks in the distance.

"Erm… Rin?" I keep looking at her, expecting an answer. After a while without responding, I follow her gaze.

There was a girl walking towards us. Her eyes were brown and her hair was silver-colored. She was wearing a dark blue dress with white sleeves that came up to her elbow, a red ribbon was tied to the bottom of her collar and she was wearing a hat that looked like the top of a shogun castle, a red ribbon adorning it too.

"Good morning, Rin!" The girl waves one of her arms at our direction.

"G-good morning, Keine!" Rin returns the greeting and looks at me.

"This is Keine Kamishirasawa. She is a schoolteacher as well as the guardian of this village. Say hello to her."

I walk up to her and hold out my hand. "I'm Nakamura; good to meet you, Miss Keine."

She grabs my hand and shakes it… "Good to meet you too. I suppose you were the one making all that racket?"

I defensively raise my hands. "Hey, they were the ones who just kept staring at us. I was getting weirded out."

She apologetically bows her head. "Please forgive their rudeness. Their lifestyle is really sheltered so anything from outside is completely alien to them."

I shrug. "Eh, it's fine."

Keine then turns to Rin. "So, what brings you to the village today?"

Rin shows her shopping list to the guardian. "We just came here to buy some groceries. How has the village been lately?"

Her expression turns grim. "Worried. A few weeks ago some of the villagers left with the intention of creating a new village, but we haven't heard from them ever since."

This information instantly piqued my interest the moment I heard it. I raise my hand to ask her a question. "Where exactly did they go to?"

Keine points behind us. I step aside and turn to see where she was pointing at. Beyond the gate where we had entered, a forest could be seen in the horizon. It was the same forest that I had seen when coming here; a road led from village's entrance towards it. "Right there, the Forest of Magic. I've tried searching for them there, but found nothing so far."

I rub my chin, thinking about some possible scenarios. "Sounds pretty intriguing. Maybe they were attacked by youkai?"

The guardian shakes her head. "That's unlikely. Finding youkai there is really difficult because of-"

*DING* *DONG* *DING* *DONG*

Suddenly, the rings of a bell echoes through the village, making her stop mid-sentence.

"Ah! I've got to go now; the kids' break time is over!" Keine turns to me... "And Nakamura… I'd like to speak with you better some other time! Have a nice day!" …and hurries down the road thereafter.

I stand there watching as she disappears from sight. _She must be really strong to be chosen as the guardian of this village…_

A light tap on my shoulder grabs my attention; it was Rin. "Come on, let's not waste anymore time."

I nod my head and start following her again. Not too long after, we arrive at an open-air market. There were many vendors in stands lined up selling different types of goods; a mixed scent of raw fish, pastries and other foods hanged in the air. Not far from us was an empty wooden bench under the shade of a tree. It seemed really cozy and cool.

"I'm going to sit on that bench over there. Call me when you're done." I start to walk towards it, only to feel something grabbing my wrist and stopping me.

"No way, you're coming with me!" Rin pouts at me as she holds me in place.

"Oh come on! The sun is killing me here and I couldn't put on some sunscreen!"

She starts to pull me to the stands. "But you said you wanted to see the village! And I also need someone to carry the groceries for me!"

"Ugh, fine." I concede to her.

The next two hours were spent walking around from stall to stall, watching Rin negotiate with the vendors and carrying the groceries for her. During this time, I noticed the variety of the food was incredible, with fruit from different climates being displayed side by side, and that she was pretty good at negotiating prices. After getting everything she needed, we left the village and started going home. We were now flying on our way back.

"You know, I can never get enough of this view. It's mesmerizing enough to distract me from the pain I'm feeling from carrying all this food." I say as I happily look at the landscape around me.

"Be careful not to drop the groceries. It was hard earning the money to buy them." Rin warns me while holding me.

"How did you even get the money to buy this anyway?" I look up at her.

"I sold some of the crops I grew in my plantation." She answers, attentively looking ahead of her.

Now hold on a minute. I open one of the bags that I was holding, and there were some vegetables in there.

"Why not just grow them yourself?"

Rin sighs sadly. "I have tried, but they always dry before I can harvest them."

"Oh, ok…" Then something clicks on my head. "Say, is Keine your friend or something?"

"Why do you ask?"

"She seemed acquainted with you, while the other villagers didn't even bother greeting you."

After a moment, the youkai nods, answering my question. "Yes, she is an old friend of mine."

After some time flying, Rin starts to lower her altitude, signaling we were close to her house. We land in front of it and she walks to the entrance to unlock the front door. After stepping inside, she grabs some weird instrument and a bow.

She then turns to me. "Set the groceries on the dining table. I'm going to the backyard and tent to the crops now."

"Right." I do just as she asked me. Then I start thinking to myself as I lean on the table.

 _This style of life is quite relaxing. Living in a cozy cabin surrounded by nature, planting your own food, making just enough live by. I could get used to it. Living a rural life has always sounded pretty appealing to me. Maybe I should ask Rin to teach me about agriculture so I could help her in the backyard._

Suddenly, an alluring music makes its way to my ears from outside, drawing my attention. I exit the house and make my way to its back. There, sitting on the grass next to the plantation, was Rin. I silently walk next to her, sit down and watch. She had her eyes closed as she played her instrument, a peaceful smile on her face. The music had a soothing feeling to it; listening to it felt like my mind was being completely washed off, leaving me in a trance-like state. All the sounds around me that were not related to the music were getting drowned out; everything else was completely irrelevant now. It was all I could hear and needed to hear.

"..ura?" I think I heard a voice, but it was too distant for me to make anything out of it.

"Nakamura!" I hear the voice again, this time louder enough to snap me back to reality.

I shake my head and blink a few times, my vision gradually becoming less blurry. Rin was in front of me, waving her hand over my face.

"Are you alright?" She asks me, looking concerned.

I nod my head weakily. "Y-yeah, I was just... appreciating the music."

The kirin smiles upon hearing that. "I'm glad you like it! I always reserve some of my free time to practice my music skills!"

"Well, all that practice is paying off." I point at her instrument. "What is this instrument called anyway?"

"Take a guess." She grins.

I rub my chin and think deeply. "Hm… a skeletal violin-banjo!"

My answer makes her smile go away and be replaced with a blank stare. "Actually, that's an erhu."

 _I think 'skeletal violin-banjo' sounds way cooler._

"By the way, why are you playing music here of all places?"

She points to the plantation with her bow. "I was playing some music for the crops. It helps them in their growth."

I raise my eyebrow, a bit incredulous at the veracity of her statement. "And it really works?

She nods enthusiastically. "Yeah! Not only do they grow faster, but they also taste better when I do it!"

"Hm... I see." Is all I'm able to say as I look at the ground straight-faced.

Seeing my extremely energetic response makes she slump her shoulders and sigh dejectedly. "...you think this is a sham, don't you?"

Breaking away from my thoughts, I desperately wave my hands to deny it. "Oh nononono, you've got it all wrong! It's just that what you said made me think about something related."

"Oh? And what would that be?"

I raise a finger as I start explaining to her. "You see, I saw a story on a news TV channel a long time ago. It was about a farmer playing music for the crops to help them grow not unlike you did just now. The only difference was the size of the plantation; his was too big, so he had to use some electronic devices to play the music for all of them. I was just a kid when I saw it, so I didn't really believe it worked, but now... yeah."

After hearing it, she sighs. This one, however, had relieved tone to it. "Phew, I thought I was the only one who would do something weird like this!"

"By the way, are you done playing the music?"

"Not really. I still have to play for a while before I'm done here. Why do you ask?"

"Mind if I stay here with you and listen to the music? I really enjoyed it." I smile awkwardly.

"Of course not! Just make yourself comfortable, because it will take a while." The kirin closes her eyes in concentration and goes back to playing her music.

Wanting to make the most of it, I lay down on the grass on my side, resting my head on my arm. Her music slowly starts to allure me, my head clearing again.

We then kept at it for quite some time. By the time she snapped me out of it again, the sun was already starting to set and we went back inside the house. Rin started preparing the food right away and was very happy when I offered to help her, giving me a knife to cut some of the leek stalk that she had bought in the market. After I was done, she told me to take shower to relax while she took care of the rest and so I did. Now feeling refreshed and clean, I joined her at dinner. We were silently eating until I started talking.

"Hey, Rin."

She shifts her look from her bowl of rice to me. "Yes?"

"Have you ever regretted deciding to live far away from everyone?"

The kirin stares at me blankly and then speaks up. "Why do you want to know that?"

I explain myself to her. "From what you've told me, you have been living like this for quite some time. Doesn't the loneliness kind of get to you or something? I'm pretty sure it would for me."

Hearing my explanation, she sets her bowl of rice on the table and closes her eyes. "Honestly, I'd be lying if I said I didn't. Things were really hard back when I first came here."

I stay silent and wait for her to continue.

"I had to start the plantation from scratch with a very limited budget because I used almost all of my savings to build this house, and I had to use the cheapest building materials available because the better ones were still too expensive, I had no one to rely on but myself to build it and look how it turned out... All of this just so I could live isolated from everyone; I don't even know how I am still here right now."

I extend my right hand and put it on top of hers. This takes her by surprise as she opens her eyes to look at me. "I'm really sorry about that. It wasn't my intention to make you feel bad."

She nods comprehensively. "Don't worry about it, I'm used to being like this."

I shake my head. "Just because you are used to it doesn't mean it's okay. What I mean to say is... you don't need to be alone anymore because I"m here with you, for now at least. I'm more than willing to help you, be it by helping with the finances or being near when you need a shoulder to lean on. Don't hesitate to ask if you need me, alright?"

Hearing my supportive words seemed to make her feel much better as her lips curl into a smile and she puts her other hand on top of mine, a sunny smile now present on her cute face. "T-thank you, Nakamura. Just knowing you're here for me makes me feel much better."

I pull my hand back and grab my bowl of rice, smiling. "Now let's go back to eating the food. You don't want it to get cold, do you?"

"Y-yeah, let's do that."

The rest of dinner was uneventful and we soon got prepared to settle for the night. After saying our good nights, I went to my bedroom and closed the door, only to get up and kneel on the floor beside the bed, my hands together, fingers intertwined and eyes closed. After finishing my prayer, I stayed still for a moment. For some reason, I could see something shining through my eyelids. I slowly opened them to see my hands glimmering for a moment before fading.

 _That's weird; out of all the times I've ever prayed, something like this never happened up until now. Was that… some sort of signal? Eh, I'll probably figure this out tomorrow..._ _Right now I just want to sleep._

I get up and go back to bed. It doesn't take too long before I drift away.

*** HALT ***

Start date: 29/10/17

Finish date: 09/11/17

Post date: 23/06/18

Total number of words in this chapter: 2956


	3. Chapter 3

My eyes slowly open to the sounds of birds chirping outside.

 _I wonder what today has in store for me._

After a while laying on the warm bed, I drowsily stand up and walk to the bathroom to get ready to start another day. A few splashes of cold water to the face were all it took to leave me a bit more awake. Once everything's done, I walk to the kitchen, not feeling sleepy anymore.

I sit on one of the chairs, joining Rin, who was already having breakfast.

"Morning." I wave my hand at her while holding a mug of tea that was set before I sat down.

Rin waves back at me. "Good morning, Nakamura! Sleep well?" She bites a piece of toast with butter.

I drink some of the tea. "Yeah, I did. So, what are we going to do today?"

"I've got a few chores for you to do. We'll start after breakfast."

We then kept eating. Honestly, I am not the sort of person that eats breakfast once they wake up; mainly because back home, I used to wake up about 20 minutes before class started, not leaving me much time to eat something so… yeah. And I don't feel very hungry after waking up too. This never affected me negatively, so maybe this "breakfast the most important meal of the day" is complete bullshit, for me at least. Anyway, the food tasted delicious. It didn't take too long before we were sufficiently fed.

"Come on, let's start now." Rin gets up and leaves through the front door, with me following her outside. We don't walk for very long as we arrive at the plantation behind the house.

She turns to me and smiles. "We'll start here."

"Fine, what do you want me to do exactly?"

She motions to the crops on the field… "The crops are ready to be harvested. Start by uprooting all of them; we'll continue once you're done." …and starts walking towards the house.

"H-hey!" I call out to her. "You're not just gonna leave me here on my own, are you?!"

She waves a hand at me, still walking. "Nope, just gonna grab a chair to sit on. I'll be supervising you all the time to make sure you're doing it right."

I turn to look at the crops, who looked like they were ready to be harvested. Actually, I didn't know whether or not they were ready because, apart from the definition of terrace farming and monoculture, I didn't know two fucks about agriculture. Thankfully, you don't need to have a PHD in farming to uproot plants from the ground, right?

The sound of footsteps from the grass interrupts my thoughts as I turn to look in the direction of its source. Rin had come back wearing sunglasses and holding a beach chair.

She unfolds it and sits on it. "You haven't started yet?"

"I was just… waiting for you to come back. Didn't want to go ahead and risk doing it wrong." I walk over to one of the plants and grab it by the stalk. "So, do I just pull it or…?"

Rin nods her head. "Yes, don't hold back."

 _Alright, here goes nothing!_

I start pulling it with all my strength. "NGGHH!"

Little by little, the root is unearthed from the ground, pieces of soil still attached to it.

I put one of my hands below it to have a better grip and walk up to Rin. "Where do I put that?"

She points to her side. "You can leave it here, now keep going."

"Right." I walk back to the plantation.

It took me a while, but I eventually managed to harvest the produce.

"There's… the last one…" I sit on the ground, breathing heavily, sweating a lot and my hands coated with dirt. Checking my wristwatch, about two hours had passed ever since I started the chore. The field now was picked clean, and a small mountain of roots sat by Rin's side and she was holding a glass of water.

She raises her sunglasses to look at me. "Hm… good job."

I stand up. "O-ok, what next?"

Rin points her finger to a small tree not far from us. "I've run out of firewood to heat the stove, so I need you to chop down that tree over there."

"Alright, where is the axe?"

She takes a sip of her water. "Right behind you."

"Wha…?" I turn around, and there was an axe behind me, stuck on the ground. Weird. I grab it and walk to the tree.

"Make sure to hit the same spot!" I hear her call out from a distance.

"Got it!" I answer back.

Now, felling a tree with an axe is not an easy task, as there are many things to take in consideration when doing it: the force used when hitting the tree, trying to hit the same spot while gravity tries to make your job harder, hitting the tree with the axe from a good angle and many other things. I was certainly having a hard time doing this, but eventually, the tree started leaning to the side.

"TIMBEEEEER!" I yell as I run to a safe distance, taking care not to be in the same direction where it was leaning.

 ***CRAAAAAASH***

I turn to Rin, who was now walking in my direction and point at the felled tree. "Job's done."

"Good job." Rin walks past me. "You should take a rest now. I'll take care of the rest."

I call out to her and wave around the axe. "H-hey, don't forget the axe!"

She merrily waves her hand at me, dismissing it. "Don't need it!"

"O-ok then…?" I go sit on the chair and catch my breath.

A few moments later, I see Rin coming back carrying a pile of lumber on her arms.

 _How did she even do that?! It took me an eternity to fell that tree!_

"That was pretty quick." I say to her.

"I've done this many times before, so it's really easy." She enters her house and comes back to me shortly after, grabbing all the produce in one go. "Come on, let's go back."

I fold the chair and take it back home along with her.

Upon arriving, I was told to take a shower while she prepared lunch. Being sweaty due to the training, I agreed in a heartbeat. Maybe I already said that, but I think it's incredible that, even though this house is not near a river or inside a village, it has a plumbing system. Where does the fresh water even come from? Anyway, after showering, we got dressed and had lunch together, after which we were chilling out at the table.

"Alright, time for me to clean the house." Rin stands up from her seat.

"Mind taking me to the human village before that?" I ask her, sitting slumped over my chair.

"Huh? Why do you want to go there again?" She looks at me while taking a broom that was leaning on the wall.

"I want to explore it more. Yesterday, you told me you would give me a tour of it but all we did was shop for some food at the local market."

"Hmm…" Rin thinks for a moment. "Alright, but I won't be able to accompany you this time. Is that okay with you?"

I nod. "Sure, works fine for me."

"Well then, let's go." She puts the broom back and walks to the front door.

Once we're outside, she locks the door, grabs me and we take off to the sky.

After flying for a while, we finally land near the entrance to the village.

"I'll be back to pick you up when the sun's setting. Take care of yourself until then, okay?"

"Don't worry, I will." I reassure her.

With that, she ascends and flies back home. Once she disappears in the horizon, I walk towards the entrance. This time the guard didn't stop me, only greeting me by nodding his head. Arriving at the plaza, I sit on a nearby bench and look around, trying to find something interesting. Everything was the same as yesterday, except Keine, who was sitting on a bench, watching over a bunch of children as they played near her. I walk to her and sit by her side, waving my arm at her as she notices my presence.

"Hello Nakamura. How are you doing today?"

"Fine, like always. What about you?"

"Fine too. The kids are on recess right now, so I get to relax a little."

"I see." I nod and then remember something. "Hey, there was something you wanted to tell me yesterday, right?"

"Did I? Hm…" She thinks for a moment. "Oh, that's right!"

"Well then, what is it?"

"I'd like to invite you to live here with the others. You may already know this, but Gensokyo is very dangerous for humans and this village is the safest place there is for them. What do you think?"

I rub my chin in contemplation. "Hmm… do I have to answer that now?"

The guardian shakes her head… "Don't worry, you don't have to answer me right now if you're uncertain." …and claps her hands as she looks at the group of children. "Alright, kids. Let's go back to class."

"Awww..." They say in unison as they stop playing.

She gets up and leaves while waving at me. I wave back and watch as she follow them back inside the schoolhouse.

Once I'm alone again, I think about what she just said: Rin also told me something quite similar back when I arrived here. With the distance between where I appeared and the location of the village, if it wasn't for her finding me, I'd most likely have ended up as youkai chow. If I started living here, my chances of being attacked would be next to none and she wouldn't need to worry about me. But what's important is if I want to live here. As ironic as it sounds, I've felt more at ease together with Rin, a youkai, than here around other humans. Hm...

 _Eh, I'll decide on it later; for now, I've got to try and find a way to surprise Rin. She will probably be happy if I return with some money. All I need to do is find a job. Now, where am I going to find it…?_

As I look around, a nearby building catches my eye. It looked like a pub or bar, the perfect place for people to hang out after a hard day of work. I walk up to one of the front windows and approach my face from the glass, cupping my hands and shielding my eyes from the light to make it easier to see inside; the lights were off and no one was inside.

 _Dang, guess they only open up by late afternoon._

"Alright, where am I going next… huh?" I not a board standing beside the pub, some needles pinning papers on it, keeping them from being swept by the wind. Upon closer inspection, I see that it's a job board and that the variety on it is incredible; the variety of papers, that is. Plain sheets of paper, pages ripped from a notebook, the back of a book cover, paper bags, a piece of toilet paper and a banana peel. I look through the papers to check for anything I might be able to do.

Butcher? Too gory for me. Carpenter? I'm not good with manual labor. Babysitter? I can't take care of kids. Cook? I don't know many dishes and I usually take my time when preparing something, which is not a desirable trait when you work at a restaurant and… hey, what's a hooker ad doing here?

…

…

...

"Ughhhhhh!" I groan in frustration as I take off my glasses and cover my face with my hands.

 _These jobs are too demanding! ...or maybe I'm just incompetent at everything. I guess there's no helping it: I've got to lower my standards._

I check the banana peel hanging on the very corner of the board just for the hell of it (needing to turn my head ninety degrees to the right, as the damn thing was not even positioned horizontally). There were a few black spots here and there, but other than that, it wasn't spoiled yet.

CURIER NEDED

COM2 HUM-VIL

POST OFS

"Seems legit!" I happily exclaim as I snatch the ad from the board and walk away. Whoever wrote the offer on this thing did a good job at butchering the words without making them lose their meaning for the most part.

"Now, where is this 'post ofs'? Wait. Post ofs… post offs… post offis… post… office?" I repeat that last part a few times and, strangely, hearing it over and over makes the word reconstruct itself inside my head.

Now that I knew where my destination was, I just needed to find it. After searching for quite some time, I found myself in front of some small old house, a banner with a few holes decorating it. It read: HUMAN VILLAGE POST OFFICE.

"This has to be it." I mutter to myself as I slowly open the door and enter the building.

Once inside, a gust of refreshing wind blows past me, which feels much better than the hot air outside. On the wall to my left is what appears to be a map inside a frame; a few grids of squares here and there inside a larger square, with a circle in the center; it was a map of the human village. To my right are a few wooden benches located side by side (can't have the customers standing while they wait, I guess). And finally, in front of me, is a wooden counter, some shelves on the wall behind it and a door leading to another part of the building (maybe for employees only). I look around for someone to ask for help, but the place is completely empty and silent. Am I supposed to take a number and wait for my turn or something? Because if that is the case, I don't see any machine for pulling numbers.

I walk up to the counter and check it. On top of it is a desk calendar and a service bell. Not thinking twice, I start ringing the bell nonstop.

*RING* *RING* *RING* *RING* *RING* *RING* *RING* *RING* *RING* *RING*

…

…

*THUD*

A strange sound comes from the room behind the reception, followed by steps coming closer to the door. It then slowly opens and an old man peeks his head out, meeting my gaze.

"Hey there." I wave my hand while greeting him.

"Are you here to complain about the packages not being delivered too? In case you don't know, I've got no one to deliver them." He angrily explains, still peeking at me from behind the doorway.

I show him the banana peel that I have been holding this entire time. "Then I guess this ad here wasn't a joke."

He eyes it for a moment before speaking again, still uninterested. "That thing? Yeah, I was the one who put it on the job board. You can go put it back there now. Have a nice day." He starts to close the door right after finishing his sentence.

"H-hey, wait!"

The door slightly opens again and the elder peeks his head out again, now even more annoyed at my persistence. "Tell me what you want in four words or less or I'm leaving."

I stop to ponder for a moment before coming up with an adequate answer. "I wanna work here!"

Saying those words in succession seemed be all he wanted to hear as his eyes widened and he opened the door completely, walking up to the counter to talk to me, his mood flipping 180 degrees instantly. "Well, why didn't you say so in the first place? Also, four words exactly. Not bad, kid."

"Heheh, thanks. Anyway, is the job available?"

He emphatically nods his head. "Sure is, boy. Ain't got nobody in this job for two months now."

"I see. So, when's the job interview?"

"Job interwhat?" He raises an eyebrow at me.

"You know, when the employer asks questions to see if the person is qualified to the job."

Hearing my explanation, his face lights up. "Oh, right. I know what you're talking about. We can start now if you want."

Steeling myself, I press forward. "Let's begin, then."

"Ok then, first question." He leans on the counter, arms crossed. "Can you walk?"

My face turns goes from determined to confused upon hearing the question.

 _Is this some sort of trick question?_ "…what?"

"Just answer the questions honestly. Can you walk?"

"Y-yes sir."

"Second question: can you write?"

"Yes sir."

"Third question: can you read?"

"Yes sir."

Right after hearing my answer, he holds out his hand to me. "Congratulations, the job is yours."

"Huh. That was fast." I shake his hand.

"I need someone for this job badly, now stay here while I go get your things." He goes to the back room and comes back after a while, carrying a variety of objects on his arms. "Alright, this is what you'll need if you're gonna work here." He sets them on the table and sorts them out. "Here's your uniform and ID card: those are proof that you work here. Next is your bag: carry the packages inside of it, as it is very spacious. Also, here's a clipboard and a pen. Once the delivery is done and you have their signature, come back here and I'll give you your payment." Once he's done talking about the items, he pushes them to me. "Now I'll give you the package. Wait right here." He goes to the back room again for a moment and comes back with a small cardboard box. "One more thing. A courier must never, EVER open a package and check its contents. Understood?"

I enthusiastically give him a thumbs up. "Yes sir!"

"Great!" He smiles, probably because of my lively response, and gives me the package. "Here you go. I'll be lenient with the amount of time you have to deliver it, but try not to take too long. Any questions?"

"Yes, actually. Who should I deliver this to?"

The elder looks at me for a moment and then his eyes widen. "Oh, that's right! Some time ago, a few men left the village and went to the forest of magic to try and live there. Three days after they left, I received an order to deliver the package I just gave to you to them. Unfortunately, the last courier refused to make the delivery and quit, so it has been gathering dust here for a while. The address was only listed as 'Forest of Magic', so they should be in there somewhere; it's your job to make sure the contents are given to them in one piece. The name of the recipient is written on the clipboard, in case you don't know. Anything else you want to ask?"

I put the banana peel on the counter. "Why did you use a banana peel to post job offer?"

He grabs it and throws it on a nearby trash can. "Because I ran out of paper and I have no money left to refill the stock. We haven't delivered a single package for quite some time, so the money stopped flowing in. Anything else?" He says, this time faster.

I shake my head as I stare at him. "Er… no, that's all."

"Then I'll be leaving now. I've got high hopes for you, son. Don't let me down!" He returns to the backroom, closing the door shut and leaving me alone once again.

 _Well, time to get to work. The package won't deliver itself, after all._

I look at my uniform: an ID card with a strap to put around my neck and a gray shirt, which has a symbol emblazoned on its back and short sleeves. Checking the windows to see if anyone is looking, I quickly take off my T-shirt and put on the gray uniform. Almost instantly I can tell the fabric used to make it is not very good, with my slightly itchy skin attesting to it. Then I take my shirt, the package and the clipboard and shove them inside the bag, leaving more than enough space left. Finally, I put the ID card strap around my neck and leave the building. Once outside, I walk towards the open gate and exit the village.

Time goes by pretty fast when you are lost in your thoughts while walking or enjoying the scenery around you, making the walk relatively short; and as the edge of the Forest of Magic approached, so did a house that stood by the side of the road. Upon getting closer, I could see a lot of junk standing outside, basking in the sunlight: tube televisions, a stop sign, a public phone, a kid's tricycle, a few flat tires, some fridges, propane tanks and much more. But why would so many things from back home be lying here? From what I know, the human village had none of them. Were they broken or something? If so, then this must be a junkyard.

I walk up to the public phone to check it closely. A bit bent to the side, rust marks and a few buttons missing on the pad. I grab the handset off its hook and put it next to my ear: nothing can be heard from it.

"Dang." I curse my luck as I put it back.

I go to the house to see if anyone's there. Behind a glass panel on the door, a hanging sign read "CLOSED".

 _Maybe next time._

Not wanting to dawdle any further, I walk past the house towards the forest of magic, stopping only when arriving in front of the entrance. This is the place where the house I'm supposed to deliver the package is located. I take out the clipboard from inside the bag and try to understand what the heck the old man from the post office wrote on it.

"Yamato." That name echoes on my head as I manage to decipher it, the surname being unreadable. Okay, now all I have to do is find the client's house inside this forest and... wait, how am I supposed to do that?!

***A few hours later...***

"Crap." I say flatly.

After entering the forest and walking around without creating a trail, I ended up getting lost very quickly. No matter where I seemed to go, it all looked the same: trees all around me, a funky smell in the air and no house in sight. Also, the trees in this forest were not very high but their treetops were somewhat dense, creating a poorly lit environment due to blocking most of the sun's rays and making it so that I couldn't tell if it was getting dark or not, although that was the least of my worries. Right now I needed to find the client's house, then I would try figure out how to get back to the village.

Then, to my relief and surprise, a clearing comes into view and, in the middle of it, is a house. I study it as I get closer to it. Compared to the houses in the human village, whose architecture had eastern traits, this one was totally the opposite, having a western look to it and reminding me of some of the houses back where I lived before ending up here. Could this be the place?

I walk up to the steps leading to the front porch and, after dusting myself a bit, knock on the door a few times. After a while waiting, I can hear someone coming to answer through the door. It opens to reveal a short haired blonde girl in a light blue dress, a red band on her head. At her sides, a few tiny dolls float in the air.

"Yes?" She asks as she stoically stares at me. Don't mess this up, now!

I clear my throat a bit before responding. "G-good morning! Is this the house where 'Yamato' lives?"

The girl shakes her head, much to my disappointment. "Sorry, but you've got the wrong house."

"Then... do you know of anyone with that name living around here?" I take the clipboard from my bag and show it to her, pointing at the name of the client.

She takes a look at it for a moment, but still shakes her head in the end. "I'm afraid not, as there aren't many people living here. There's a house nearby, but don't bother going there."

"Why? Is there something wrong with it?"

"No, but just trust me on this one."

"R-really? Alright then." I scratch the back of my head. "Then I'll be going now. Sorry for bothering you and have a nice day!" I start leaving the porch and back into the forest, determined to continue my search.

"Wait a moment." I hear the voice of the girl call out to me from behind and turn around. "You shouldn't stay here for very long. This forest is pretty dangerous, after all."

Hearing the warning again makes me uncomfortable as I readjust the strap of my bag. "I've heard that youkai tend to stay away from here. Just what is so dangerous about this place anyway?"

"Even though they usually avoid coming here, it doesn't mean that this place has none of them; there are also man-eating plants, toxic fungi spores and the air itself is hazardous for a normal person's health."

My eyes widen in astonishment. "Wait, even the AIR?!"

She nods, her expression serious. "ESPECIALLY the air. I suggest you leave this place as soon as possible."

"O-okay, I'll keep that in mind. After I deliver this package, I'm out of here! Thanks for the warning!" I resume walking away.

 _Did I make a good first impression? I didn't sound too awkward there, did I?_

***Shift to third person***

The girl stared silently as the delivery man retreated back to the forest, the shade of the trees obscuring his presence until he could no longer be seen.

 _Maybe I should keep an eye on him for his safety._

She turns to one of the dolls floating beside her. "Go follow that guy, but don't make your presence known and only intervene if he gets in trouble."

The doll nods once and dart off in the direction he was last seen, disappearing in the shadows.

The girl then enters her house and closes the door.

***HALT***

Author's note: Well, here it is. The third chapter. Now that I have written all three chapters, I will give this fic a bit of time so I can think of what to do next. I already kind of got the concept in my head, so I just need to put it into paper. Again, constructive criticism on how I could improve is always appreciated and, if you read everything up to this point, then thank you for taking your time to read this fanfiction.

Writing start date: 15/03/18

Writing finish date: 15/07/18

Post date: 15/07/18

Total number of words in this chapter: 4695


	4. Chapter 4

_Alright, why the hell did I take on this job to begin with!? Oh wait, that's because I wanted to earn some money to help Rin out, but still..._

Whatever reason I had to enter this stupid forest didn't matter in the slightest; the reality of my situation was the same: What was supposed to be a quick delivery ended up being a chore that was dragging on longer than I wanted to. According to my wristwatch, more than four hours had passed ever since I had entered the forest, and I had been searching for the client's house from the very beginning. The fact that the adress description only had "Forest of Magic" written on it didn't help much. Walking had become so monotonous that sometimes I took a sharp turn to my left or right just for the sake of change, although it didn't seem to change anything at all. I was still walking forward, trees were still passing by me and the sound of crickets could be heard in the distance...

Actually, something DID change over time, but it wasn't good at all. I could notice that it was slowly but surely becoming harder to see, signaling that the sun was setting, taking my only source illumination away little by little. In an hour or two, I would be left vulnerable and in complete darkness. To make matters worse, the warning that blonde puppeteer gave me made me extremely paranoid to the point where I looked at my surroundings every so often, always thinking that something was stalking me, ready to strike at the worst possible moment.

 _I gotta find that house fast or else I'm don- huh?_

While I walked and looked forward, the shadow of a figure came into view in the distance, making me stop almost immediately to take a better look at it. The figure was limping lethargically, looking like it was going to collapse on the ground at any time. Maybe it was hurt badly? The view of this individual in such a miserable condition had me feeling divided.

On one hand, that figure could possibly be in dire need of assistance and I truly wanted to go ask if they needed help, as they could provide me with much needed directions in return. On the other hand, I was feeling extremely fearful for my life and wanted to stay as far away as possible from them, the warnings I had heard previously amplifying that fear. Fortunately, they did not seem to be aware of my presence, which meant I still could make my choice.

… _No way I'm going near them._

Deciding to listen to my better jugdement, I take the safest way out and start slowly circling around them while making as little noise as possible and keeping an eye out for any sudden movements.

*CRACK*

A loud snap makes my heart nearly burst out of my chest as it reverberates through the forest. Out of reflex, I hide behind a tree as fast as I can and try to make out what happened: In a moment of carelessness, I most likely stepped on a tree branch or something similar, but that didn't matter right now, because the sound of sluggish footsteps could now be heard approaching my location.

Running away was not an option anymore, because it would surely give out my position, if I already hadn't been spotted. I stayed behind that tree, holding my breath and trying to still my shaking body to no avail. The sound of footsteps on the grass were getting louder and louder by now and, if I had to take a guess, I'd say that we were roughly about seven meters apart, that very tree being the only thing preventing me from getting spotted. Also, I could now hear pained moans and heavy breathing over my pounding heart.

Then, to further strengthen my fear, a series of tapping noises started sounding off in the distance. They sounded like two hard materials hitting each other and seemed to follow a steady pattern, something that seemed to conflict with the arrhythmical and organic moans from before. Thankfully for me, the tapping also seemed to catch the attention of whatever that creature was, as I heard it slowly walk away in the direction of the sound. Eventually, I lean my head out to take a look, only to see no one in sight. Taking that as a sign, I get the hell out of there and walk back to my original direction before all that ordeal.

After walking a while longer, I come across another lone house, which was pretty impressive, considering it was well concealed by the shadows of the surrounding trees. From its height, I could see it had two floors, nothing special. This could be the client's house... this HAD to be the client's house, because if it wasn't, my next moments searching for it would be in the dark. I walk up to the front door and knock on it a few times, only for no one to answer. I try it again a few times again and get the same response.

 _Fuck it._

I grab the doorknob and twist it while pushing the door and, much to my surprise, it actually opens! I slowly invite myself inside, shutting the door behind me thereafter. In an instant, my nostrils are assaulted by a foul smell _._ Focusing my eyes to the best of my ability, I am able to just barely make out my surroundings: a small table on the ground surrounded by a few cushions on tatami mats, two box-like objects sitting on top of it, one smaller than the other. Upon closer inspection, I can feel that the top of the bigger one has no cover and that there is a small stick inside pointing upwards with a flexible string on its end.

 _Yeah, that's a lamp alright. Now, all I need is..._

I fiddle with the smaller one, eventually opening it and revealing a set of tiny sticks. Thank God they've already invented matches here. With a bit of scraping the end of the match against the rugged side of the box, a small flame is brought to life. I waste no time in lighting the lamp with it, its fire brightening my surroundings considerably. Sure, it's not as good as a flashlight, but just like Mighty No. 9, it's better than nothing!

Now with a light source in hand, I started navigating through the lower floor of the house, which consisted of the living room where I came from, a kitchen and a bathroom. While exploring the first floor, I expected the stench that I first noticed to get stronger, but it didn't. That scratched it off my list, leaving only the second floor left. Going back to the living room one more time paid off, as I managed to find a barely noticeable set of stairs in the corner. I slowly walk up them, the stress of my weight being enough to make them let out a creak every now and then. At the top of the stairwell was a hallway, two doorways along it and one at the other end of the hall. The first two rooms had nothing out of the ordinary, leaving only the room at the end of the hallway and inside it.

"What the hell?!" I say out loud, shocked at what I found.

On top a bed lied the body of a man. I couldn't tell much just from looking at it, apart from the fact that it wansn't bloated yet and the skin color looked normal for the most part. As for the smell... It was noticeable back downstairs, but the foul air around it made it very hard to breathe and I felt my gorge rising constantly. I don't think you could get to this point even if you stopped bathing altogether and his chest didn't rise or lower ocasionally, so... Yes, the guy was dead.

I take some distance from the unsightly view before me and look around for anything that might tell me who this house belongs to. A slip of paper on a nearby table catches my attention and I pick it up to take a better look at it. It was a receipt for the Human Village's mail service, and at the recipient's name was the name "Yamato" plus some surname that I couldn't read because of some distinctly bad handwritting. I take another look at the corpse, or better yet, my client while still holding the paper.

 _My job here's done, I guess. Can't deliver a package if the recipient's not here to take it._

I stuff the paper on my pocket and start to walk towards the door, but the close sound of something shuffling makes me stop almost immediately. The last time I checked, I was the only one alive in this place. I quickly turn around and what I see confirms exactly what I dreaded the most. Yes, I was still the only one alive in this place. The client, on the other hand, went from being dead to being undead; he was slowly rising from the bed, eyeing me all the while. _Hungrily_. I get out of the bedroom as quickly as I can and, after closing the door behind me, enter the door closest to the stairs. Once inside, I lock the door and block it with a nearby nightstand. Meanwhile, a few bangs could be heard coming from the door at the end of the hallway. I sit on the floor and close my eyes to catch my breath from all that happened with the lit lamp at my side. Now that I was thinking about it, locking myself in a room was probably the best course of action to take, as leaving the house would leave me stranded in the dark and vulnerable to whatever was lurking outside right now.

"He better pay me big time for this." I speak to myself.

"I suppose getting out with your life intact is not enough?" A mysterious female voice asks me out of nowhere, startling me.

I open my eyes and look up to see the figure of a woman sitting mid-air in the middle of the room. I couldn't make out many of her features due to the distance between us; from where I was, all I could see was the lower half of her purple dress and long blonde hair that went down to the bottom of it, a few ribbons tying them. The dim light from my lamp simply wasn't enough and, after what happened earlier, I wasn't going to come closer any time soon.

"How the heck did you get in?! There was no one here when I checked!" I slowly stand up, wary of her.

"This is a really fortunate series of events, don't you think?" She asks casually while ignoring my question.

 _I can't tell if she's being sarcastic or if she's joking._ "Are you talking about the part where I got sent to this place of all people? Or the part where I got lost in this forest ? Or maybe the part where I almost got attacked by some strange creature?"

"I am talking about the part where you survived a fall of twenty meters with only a few scrapes and bruises, got sheltered by the first youkai you met and had your life saved without even knowing."

 _She's got a point there, although I don't get the last part._ "Yeah, that's true. Maybe I should count my blessings." _Wait a moment, I never told her those things and I certainly don't remember meeting her anywhere._ "Hey, how do you even know that to begin with?"

She doesn't respond and just sits mid-air staring(?) at me.

I narrow my eyes a bit to try to see her better and then it hits me: she only appeared to be sitting mid-air. Instead, there was what seemed to be a tear in the fabric of space, with many eyes staring at me from within and a red ribbon on each edge of the opening.

 _This tear...! I've seen it before!_

"Hey, you're the one who brought me here, right?!"

Her index finger taps repeatedly against her leg. "Of course not. You walked here on your own."

 _Yeah, she's joking with me._

I shake my head lightly. "I know that. What I'm talking about is Gensokyo. You brought me to Gensokyo, right?"

All of a sudden, she claps her hands once, a loud sound echoing through the room and the sudden movement scaring the shit out of me. "Finally!" She says with much enthusiasm. "I thought you'd never figure it out! My name is Yukari Yakumo; pleased to meet you." She grabs the sides of her dress and salutes me.

"N-nakamura. The pleasure is mine." I reluctantly give her a thumbs up. "Now, why did you bring me here?"

She crosses her legs. "Because you are a hero from an ancient prophecy that is destined to save this land from a great evil."

I look at her with an unamused face."You can't be serious." _If she IS serious, then she literally chose the most incapable person for the job._

"To be honest with you, I'm not."

I put my hand to my forehead in frustration. "You know what? Whatever. Just be careful with those rifts of yours. You could killed me back then." _Man, this lady's a real handful to talk to._

She puts her hands together, fingers intertwined. "Oh, I'm sorry. I assure you I had no intention of killing you."

I smile a little. "Really?" _I guess this was all a mistake and-_

"Of course. I only wanted to disable you, at worst."

 _Yay, mood whiplash!_ "..." I couldn't find any words or action to properly show my shock other than silently staring wide eyed at her.

"I'm told the wild youkai usually prefer their food live, but unable to run or fight back."

By now, my legs were starting to tremble. "And since I survived, you're here to..." _And we're all alone here, in a desolate forest. I'm fucked, aren't I?_

She dismissively waves her gloved hand. "There's no need for that. If the wild youkai can't catch someone like you, then they're better off starved to death. Do I look like their mother to give them food in their mouths?"

I was feeling a bit better now, but still scared. "Er, does that mean I get to keep my legs?"

"Yes, you're just a lonely and ordinary human after all. It's not like you could do much if one of them attacked you." She uncrosses her legs and turns to the interior of the rift she was sitting on. "Chatting with you is pretty nice, but I have other matters to attend to. I'll see you some other time, if you're still alive by then that is."

I hold out a hand. "W-wait! There's one last thing I wanted to ask you!"

She turns her upper body to look at me. "Sorry, I don't do autographs if that's-"

"My backpack! Can I have it back at least, please?"

"Hmm..." She looks forward and ponders for a moment.

I put my hands together in a begging gesture "Pretty please? With sugar on top?"

After a while, she gives her response. "Fine, but only because you asked nicely." She snaps her finger and another rift appears by my side above the nightstand. My trusty backpack comes out and falls on top of it (Watch the goods, dammit!).

"There. I've got to go now." She starts sinking into the rift, but comes back up when she was almost disappearing inside it. "Oh, and before I forget: Welcome to Gensokyo." With that, she fully enters it and it closes shortly after, leaving me alone in the room (hopefully).

…

…

…

"Geez, thanks for the welcome, Yukari. Best reception ever; so good I'm giving Gensokyo a fucking five-star rating on Google next time I get to use the internet." I mumble to myself as I sit on the floor with my backpack and check my belongings.

Although my backpack was possibly in possession of Yukari for a few days, nothing had been taken. A laptop, a cellphone, a blue Nintendo 2DS , a solar charger, a wallet (along with my documents and cards), books, a pencil case, a scientific calculator and a pocket knife; yup, everything was in order. I grab my phone and press the power button, only for nothing to happen, which is understandable as I remember leaving it on before getting sent here. Not many days had passed since then, however it was long enough for the battery to discharge completely. Thankfully that wasn't a problem, as I could recharge it with the solar charger; the laptop and the 2DS weren't as lucky though. The voltage generated by it wasn't nearly enough to do the job (What is 5 volts compared to 127?); only a socket would suffice. That had to be left for another time though, for I had much more important things to worry about, finding my way back to the Human Village being one of them. I walk up to the bed, leaving my backpack leaning against its foot and, after praying on my knees beside it, I lay on it.

I waited and waited, but the sleep simply wasn't coming this time, and I blamed that on an ever growing feeling of pain inside my chest.

" _... the wild youkai prefer their food live..."_ Yukari's word's kept repeating inside my head.

 _Food. Is that the only reason I was sent here? Not to help others, not even by mistake, but to sate the hunger of a monster for a few hours?_

Moreover, I couldn't stop feeling helpless about my situation; if what happened back outside was anything to go by, Yukari was spot-on. If it wasn't for whoever made that sound, I probably wouldn't have made it out of that encounter alive. I didn't even know what was I doing here anymore and felt like I was going to war by myself against an entire army, with nobody to rely on. After a lot of time, I managed to catch some much needed shuteye.

Tomorrow was going to be a new day.

* * *

I am inside of a water park on a hot sunny day walking towards a pool.

 _Man, I could really use a dip._

" _Eeeekkkk!"_ A cry of despair snaps me away from my thoughts and I look at the direction of the noise. Near the pool, a woman is being attacked by a crazy white goose flapping its wings about while she shields her face with her arms.

 _You stay the hell away from that poor woman!_

I look around myself and find a orange-colored object; I grab it, take aim and then throw it. The object flies in an arc, striking the animal right in the head. As if being shut down, it stops its attack on the woman, letting her run away, and slowly turns his eye to stare at me with a gaze that could pierce kevlar.

 _Oh shit._

Then, after a long period of starting daggers at me, it goes full Usain Bolt and starts sprinting in my direction as if its life depended on it. I desperately try to run away it, only managing to drag my feet across the ground, as if weights were tied to them. By now, the devil spawn had shortened our distance by a dangerous amount. It folds back its wings and lunges at my face headlong like a missile with its beak open. I react just in time and grab it with my hands, holding it open and being able to see the inside of its throat, and it looked nightmarish. The walls of its throat were covered in pointy spikes to ensure that whatever went down it wouldn't be able to go back up, in one piece at least. Think of the mouth of a leatherback turtle, or a camel or the sarlacc pit from Star Wars. I don't need to say more, do I?

"I will tear your fucking hide off!" The creature threatens me in a deep voice while flapping its wings to try and break free from my grasp.

 _Oh, come on! Can't I have a break even in my dreams?!_

I had been able to hold it in place until now, but I could only do so for so long and was slowly losing my grip. I had been screwed over in many ways in my dreams, but to have my face eaten by a demonic goose was an all-time low.

"Hmm, that's a very weird dream you got there."

 _Muh-?!_

I look to my side to see a girl staring at me while lying on her stomach in the air, a mix of amusement and curiosity on her face. She had dark blue eyes and hair and was wearing a very long Santa Claus hat along with a black and white dress decorated with black and white chocolate balls... or were they pom poms?

"Do you usually have dreams like this one? I don't have anything like it recorded in my book." She flips through the pages of said book.

I try to say "Help!" to her, but nothing comes out.

She looks at me for a moment before her face lights up. "Oh, sorry! Let me give you a hand there."

She grabs the animal by the neck and studies it while it flails about and tries to lash out at her; she isn't fazed in the least. "Bon appetit." She shrinks it to the size of a piece of gum and pops it into her mouth! Meanwhile, I can only stare at her, weirded out.

She chews it for a while and then swallows it. "Thanks for the meal. Say, you're new here, right?"

I point to my moving but silent mouth.

"Cat's got your tongue, huh? Don't worry, I can help you with that." She holds out a hand and a small blackboard and a piece of chalk appear in a cloud of pink smoke; I grab them and start writing down on it.

" _Thanks for the help. And yes, I am new here; just arrived a few days ago_."

"I see." She nods her head and just stares at me contemplatively.

" _Is something the matter_?"

She shakes her head. "It's nice to finally see your face. Your other dreams these past few days were just pitch black; I couldn't see anything inside them. It was finally clear this time, but you were struggling with that... thing."

" _This happens because dreams are something I rarely have and when I do, it's usually a bad dream. This was one of them."_

"That must be awful for you. Well, you don't have to worry about it this time, as I have feasted upon your nightmare; tasted real good, by the way." She opens her book. "Now, how about I give you a good dream so that..." The rest of her phrase fails to reach my ears as I stop paying attention to her to look down instead.

The ground beneath my feet was shaking; it was barely noticeable at first, but then started to gradually gain intensity.

"Wait, that's not part of the dream I made for you." The girl looks around herself, then shrugs. "Hang on. I'm going to erase it." She stands there for a while before her eyes start to widen. "It's not... working?"

Meanwhile, I had already fallen to the ground, unable to keep my balance. The scenery around us was getting destroyed too: cracks were forming on the ground, steel structures crumbled to the ground, etc. No people in sight though.

"Come on! Come. ON!" Domino girl starts frantically waving her hands around, trying to do sign language or whatever she wanted to do. "Why nothing's happening?!" Frustrated, she tugs on her cute pink hat.

The ground beneath us at that point was no longer able to withstand the tremors as a crater opened right where I was and I started plummeting into a deep void.

" _Aaaaahhhhhhh_!" ...is what I wanted to say or even write on my board, but I doubt I would be able to do it while falling or that she would even read it.

"Hey, come back here!" Domino girl extends a hand to try and grab me, but with no success; by the time she took action, I was too far gone. She quickly disappeared in the distance as I fell and, eventually, my surroundings got too dark for me to see anything.

* * *

After coming back to my senses, I notice that I am still surrounded by darkness, although I wasn't falling or at least feeling the fall anymore. Furthermore, I could clearly see the rest of my body even though there was no light source nearby. That and the blackboard and chalk were nowhere to be seen.

Was I even dreaming now? For me, it's usually no dreams (which Ms. Pom pom described as a complete void) or terrible dreams, but a dream inside a void? That's a new one.

I sit up and sigh deeply. "Ugh, just let me have a good night of sleep already- oh hey, I can talk again!" I have little time to rejoice in the return of my speech, as the vision of someone in front of me makes me stop and stare at them.

A person with bluish-gray hair that came down to their upper back wearing a long and tattered red cloak, which covered the rest of their body, was standing with their back to me. But what really stood out was the large wooden cross they were carrying; it was even bigger than they were!

"Hello?" I slowly get up, eyes fixed at them.

The figure lets out a gentle and feminine voice. "Sorry you had to experience that, but I needed to speak to you in private."

"You were the one who caused that earthquake? Who are you anyway?" Despite my nervousness, I wasn't feeling scared at all. For some reason, even though I did not know who she was and we were alone, a sensation of peace and serenity instantly filled my heart just from hearing her voice for the first time.

She turns her head to look at me with one of her light red eyes. "You really don't know? That makes me really sad, honestly. And to think we are so close..."

"Sorry, I feel like I remember you from somewhere but I can't put my finger on it..." I rub the back of my head in embarrassment. It felt a lot like that moment when you engage in a long conversation with someone who acts close to you but whose name you ended up forgetting by accident.

"Hmm, I understand. Well then." The girl turns around, facing me and making it possible for me to see her other features.

Her head was decorated by a dark green headband with pointy decorations all along it with a pink rose on the side. Under the cloak, she was wearing a white shirt with black frills at the end of the long sleeves along with a white and blue ankle-length skirt with trimmings. A cyan bow was attached to her neck; it was being used to hold the cloak so that it would stay in place instead of being blown away at the slightest breeze. As for her legs, she was wearing black shoes together with gray socks that came up to, at least, her knees.

She extends her hands to me, palms facing upwards. "What about those? Ring any bells?" Her hands, forehead and right eye were covered in bandages; whatever happened to her wasn't pretty, as the ones on her hand still had blood marks visible on them. "Here, come take a closer look."

 _Her hands..!_

I slowly walk up to her. At that moment, I already knew who that girl was claiming to be thanks to the locations of her wounds. You could call them the "trademark" of a certain person. Even then, I was still uncertain about it all.

I grab her delicate hands and look at her face; she nods once. "Go ahead and take them off."

Following her order, I start unwrapping her hands until, finally, her bare hands were in full view. There was a hole in each hand that started large, but decreased in diameter as it reached the back, and the flesh had not healed at all with the passage of time; despite this, not a single drop of blood was flowing out of them.

"Feel them." She gently commands me.

Without hesitation, I start feeling around them with my fingers while wincing; I couldn't even imagine how much it must have hurt her; it was very touching to know that someone had selflessly let that happen to them so that something worse didn't need to happen to me, or to all humanity for that matter. I could feel a powerful sensation wash over me, my lips started to quiver and my hands started trembling. With teary eyes, I look back at her gentle face and meet her beautiful gaze.

She gives me a lovely warm smile and says, "Do you believe me now, Lucas?"

* * *

Author's note: OOOOHHH BOI, this one was a real handful and took a while to write, mostly the first half of the chapter. While writing this, I learned that writing suspense is really not my thing, so forgive me if that part looked rushed or looked badly written and for taking so long to come out with another chapter. By the way, what do you readers think about my take on Yukari's personality? Did you think I got it right? Leave your opinion in the review section. As always, constructive criticism is very welcome! Thank you if you read this story up to this point, have a nice day and may God bless your life! By the way, I learned how to put those horizontal line thingies on my documents! Looks way much better than those triple asterisks, huh?

Fun fact: That part where I got attacked by a goose actually happened to me in one of my dreams and I woke up with my heart racing and pulling my fingers. Crazy, huh?

Writing start date: 22/08/18

Writing finish date: 04/10/18

Post date: 12/10/18

Total number of words in this chapter: 5218


	5. Chapter 5

_No way..._

I just don't know how to react to the situation at hand. That girl right in front of me is claiming to be the Messiah...

* * *

The Messiah, also known as Jesus of Nazareth, a Jewish preacher born during the Roman Empire who is considered by many, including me, to be the incarnation of God (the Son) on this earth.

If you were to check the life history of every single Christian, you'd see that most of them turned to God because they were desperate for solving serious issues in their lives, but couldn't find help anywhere else. This always struck me as odd, considering I come from a pretty normal family where drugs, alcohol, violence or money were never a problem. Now, does that means I'm special in any way compared to the others? Maybe an exception, but certainly not special.

I've known God ever since I was just a small child; from an early age, I'd be brought to a local Protestant church near my home to learn about Him, but, because I was just a kid, I lacked the maturity to completely understand what it really meant. Growing up, I was taught about baptism and, after reading pamphlets and being constantly reminded about it's importance to one's salvation, it stuck on my mind, but I never really went through with it in the end. Things kept going like that up until it was time to move on to college; I'd be living by myself, to an extent, and wouldn't have anyone to hold my hand and bring me to church. I'd have to do it on my own.

But I never, or rather, almost never did. Instead, in my early years in college, I distanced myself more and more from God, and continued up until a certain point where something inside my head made me stop and reflect upon my situation. I was enrolled in a public university, had a (hopefully) brilliant future ahead of me, had a loving and caring family supporting me, money wasn't a problem, and even then, there was still something bothering me, almost as if trying to draw my attention to a very important matter I had forgotten long ago.

That's when I looked back; back at the time where I still going to church. I didn't know why, but going there made me pretty happy for some reason. If that was the case, then why did I stop attending it in the first place? Realizing that this was all a call, I decided to seek God. But how exactly was I going to do it? Fortunately, at college, I also made friends with a Christian who I believe God put there to guide me and, with the guidance of this friend of mine, who was once an atheist, I set my life back on its proper tracks and carried on. Since then, my entire life life changed; the moment I was submerged in that baptismal pool was the moment I was practically reborn. That empty feeling from before left and I finally understood God's goodness for what is truly was.

* * *

…and that takes me to the present day.

That girl looked pretty convincing, although there were still some unanswered questions left.

I take a few steps back as I look at her, shocked at her knowing something so confidential. "My name... how do you know it?" _I never told it to anyone ever since I came here, not even Rin!_

She walk forward, not letting the distance between us increase. "I know the name of all my children, Lucas. All of them."

"A-ah... I... Um... Erm..." My nervousness makes it so that the words in my mouth tumble over one another, not letting me form a coherent sentence.

"If you're still not convinced, I can show you the whip scars on my back, or maybe the nail marks on both my feet. You can even touch them too, if you want."

 _Scars? From the whipping that Jesus had to endure after being sentenced to death?_

She nods once. "Exactly."

"Oh, I see- HOLD ON!" I point at her, terrorized. "YOU READ MY MIND JUST NOW!"

"Your mother taught you that I'm omniscient, don't you remember?" She taps the side of her head with her index finger. "Reading your mind or probing your heart is no harder than reading a sheet of paper for me."

I slowly lower my finger, still looking at her with my eyes wide open. Those were too many coincidences at the same time! That person really is...

I get in front of her and stare deep into her eyes. "Jesus, is that you?"

"It is I, Lucas.", is all that she says.

At that moment, my heart couldn't deny it anymore as my eyes slowly started watering. "M-M-MAAASTER!" I wrap my arms around Her in a tight hug. "I'm so sorry! I should have believed in You more!"

 _What a Christian I am, doing something like this! Sinning is one thing, but not recognizing my own savior? What the heck? And I am not even Jewish!_

I stayed there with her, crying my eyes out. She was surely going to chew me out for doubting her like that!

...

...

...

But instead of harsh words, I feel something soft on the back of my head.

"It's alright. I forgive you, my dear." Instead, I hear Her calmly reassuring me. With my eyes a bit red, I break the hug to see her caressing my head with her hand, a small smile on her face that could even calm the most violent storms. "There's no need to cry, okay? Here, let's sit so that I can dry your eyes."

I immediately comply with her and assume a sitting position. She grabs her sleeve and gently wipes my tears away with it and, once she's done, sits on the ground in front of me with Her legs crossed.

She puts her hands together. "Now, with all that out of the way, we can talk. I assume there are many things you want to ask me. Am I right?"

I sniffle. "Yes, you are. To begin with, you don't really look like what I had in mind."

She giggles, covering her mouth with one of her hands. "You didn't expect me to have long brown hair and green eyes, did you?"

"Wha- no!" _The Messiah never looked like that in real life!_ "But I expected you to be a man instead of a girl! Aren't you supposed to be an adult male?"

She shakes her head, smiling. "Lucas, you must understand that I, as well as my Father and the Holy Spirit, have no such thing as gender nor age. Also, I have appeared before other humans before in the form of a child, an elderly or anything in between; this is just another one of them. Being either male or female would imply having a opposite-gender equivalent, and you know that I am one-of-a-kind." She stops to think for a moment before speaking again. "This analogy is crude, but think about it this way: remember that game series about the little monsters that come out of spherical capsules and battle each other?"

My eyes go wide at her mentioning it. "Oh, you mean Pokémon? Sure!" _Wow, I never thought I'd be talking to Jesus about freaking Pokémon of all things. It's been a while since I last played it, though. The last time was, I think, about a year after the release of Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire._

She smiles at my response. "Good. Now, there are a few legendary species which can only be found once in the entire game and cannot be found anywhere else, right?"

"Right!"

Her smile broadens. "And they are genderless, yes?"

"Yes!"

She points to Herself with both her index fingers.

My face lights up as I connect the dots. "Ooh, I get it now, although there are some things that can't really be compared between you two."

She shrugs Her shoulders. "Like I said, this is a crude analogy, but what matters is that you get my point."

"True, I guess. Anyway, what brings you here? Did you come here to give me a divine revelation?"

The Messiah shakes Her head again. "Actually, no."

Surprised at Her answer, I raise an eyebrow. "Then why are you here?"

She frowns at me. "By the love of my Father, can I not have a normal conversation with my children? I don't always appear before others to give revelations or to perform miracles, you know."

"Oh, sorry about that. If you came here to talk, then let's talk." I smile sheepishly. "You came at a good time, not that there's a bad time for you to appear, mind you."

She returns the smile. "I know now's a good time; that's why I'm here. I'm glad to see that you have been safe up until now."

"All thanks to you, and thanks for saving me from that creature back outside."

She shakes Her head. "I appreciate your gratitude, but that wasn't me. That was one of that blonde puppeteer's dolls."

"Wait a minute, she sent one of her dolls to look after me?"

"Indeed. Don't forget to thank her later, by the way."

"Yes, will do. Anyway, I need to talk to you about something that's been bothering me recently."

"Tell me about it, my dear. You know I'm always ready to hear you." She says calmly.

"Well then," I take a deep breath. "I've been taught that all things happen in God's time and that nothing happens without His permission. That means that if I was brought to this place, it was because He allowed it to happen."

She nods silently and waits for me to keep going.

"I'm okay with that, sure, but that doesn't mean everything's okay. There are many things that I've got to worry about now and I don't know what to do."

"It has to do with what Yukari told you during your encounter with her, I assume." The Messiah goes straight to the point.

I nod, surprised at being read like an open book. "Y-yes! Thank your Father that all we did was talk and nothing more, but I was and am still scared."

After hearing me, She covers Her face with a hand and sighs. "I know, I saw it all. It's understandable that you, being a mortal, would fear for your life, but you seem to have forgotten some very important things."

I approach Her, hands together. "Then please tell me what I need to remember!"

She uncovers Her face to look at me again. "Alright. First of all, Yukari wasn't exactly wrong."

A bit of sadness fills my heart from hearing that from her. "Really? She wasn't?" _Then I guess I'm just a human, after all._

"But." She stops me before I can nourish that line of thought further. "She wasn't right either."

"What do you mean by that?" _Was Yukari lying to me?_

"You may be a human, but you are not just a human; you, like many others, are one of my Father's children." She reaches out and touches my chest with Her delicate fingers. "You allowed Him to enter your heart and, as such, your body has become His temple. Since He resides inside you through the Holy Spirit, that means you are not alone, ever."

I can only nod my head at her reassuring words.

She pulls her hand back and taps her legs with both of them. "Now, come here."

I look at her, confused. "What exactly do you want me to do?"

"I want you to lay your head on my lap." Somehow, She manages to say this with a straight look on her face.

After a while, I answer. "Okaaay, I guess. Why though?"

"So that you can rest your soul in me. You always ask me to alleviate you before going to sleep, don't you?"

I let out an embarrassed laugh as I look down at the ground. "Yeah, but I never thought it would be like this. Hang on, I'm coming."

I crawl to Her and, once I'm close enough, lay on my back and rest my head on Her lap. The both of us did not say a single word as we relaxed together, with She looking down at me from above and me looking at Her from near the ground. The undying love that She had to offer could be felt just by staring at her gentle visage, whose sight was more sedative than any medicine known to mankind. If a third party were to see us like this, we could easily be mistaken for a dependable parent caring for its needy child.

 _She's really Jesus._ I think to myself. _The same who lead the Twelve Apostles and died for humanity. I heard people saying that they also talked to Him before. Is this what it feels like? Because, if it is, then this is the best thing in the world._

"Lucas." She breaks the silence and pulls me back to reality. "I need to tell you one last thing before I go."

"Um, what is it?"

"Things might not get any easier to you from here on, but I also want you to know that, no matter how impossible and bleak things may seem at some times, I am always by your side, holding your hand. If you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to a mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move, and nothing will be impossible to you."

"Move... mountainsh..." I mutter, starting to get drowsy. "Thanks... Master... love you..."

"I love you too, my dear mustard seed." She smiles at me one last time before I go unconscious.

* * *

My eyes slowly open as I wake up. I get up from bed and stretch my limbs; today I'm finishing this for good. The night of sleep that I had yesterday did wonders as I didn't feel tired or sleepy.

The bedroom was dim and the few rays of light coming from outside didn't do much to brighten my surroundings, despite it being morning already. The flame inside the lamp I was carrying with me had also been snuffed out some time during the night, the candle fueling it having run out of wick. At least my eyes didn't sting when I woke up.

With the feeling of drowsiness gone, I go over my plans for the day. _Okay, first things first, I get out of here, then I go with the flow. That's not really a plan, but whatever. Now, how do I get out of here?_

I switch glances between the only two possible ways of getting out of here: the door or the window. The door was still barricaded, just like how it was left the night before and there were no banging sounds coming from it. Even though it looked like things calmed down, I didn't want to risk getting jumped, meaning the window was my only choice. I walk up to it and open it to look down at the ground, which was close, but not close enough for me to jump out of it safely. Maybe if I had something to lower myself?

I stare around the room for something that could be of help, eventually deciding on using the bed sheet. I take them off the bed and tie one end to one of its leg, with the other end being left hanging outside the window. Unfortunately, it didn't go down all the way to the ground and looked very fragile, but it's not like I was going to use it more than one time. As I'm preparing to leave, I hear a tapping sound coming from the window. I turn my head to look at it, and outside is the doll from yesterday looking at me.

"Hey there buddy!"

The doll waves its tiny arm at me as it enters.

"I'm already leaving; job's already done. Mind leading me out of here? It will take too long if I do this on my own."

It nods and waits for me outside the window.

I exit the house through the window and go down the makeshift rope while the doll pulls me by the shirt upwards to slow down the fall.

I turn my head to look at my guide. "Try not to stretch it; it's the only uniform I have."

Once we reach the end of the rope, I grab hold of my backpack straps and ready my legs for landing; my legs bend forward to absorb the impact as an audible stomp sounds from my position. At that moment, I was almost certain that I heard a guttural growl come from inside the house. Wasting no time, we start our journey back to safety; walking through the forest now felt very relieving now that I was following someone who knew where they were going. It took us a while, but we managed to reach the puppeteer's house safely. Upon arriving at her doorstep, the doll knocks on the door a few times and we wait for a response.

"Coming." A voice comes from inside.

Steps are heard coming closer to the door and it opens, revealing the house's owner; a lot of dolls similar to the one who guided me were behind her setting up tableware.

"Oh, you brought him back. Good job." She says as she pets her doll's head, who wipes its own forehead with its arm in a tired manner. "Of course, come inside and take a break; you deserve every moment of it."

The doll nods and flies past her into the house.

She then turns to me. "Welcome back. I see you are unharmed."

"Yeah, thanks to you." I say. "And thanks for sending that doll to watch over me, she was really helpful."

"I'm glad to hear that." She says as she flashes me a smile. "Would you like to come inside for a cup of tea?"

"I would love to, but I have to politely decline your offer; I have work to do." I say as I pat my messenger's bag.

"In that case, do you want me to give you a lift back to the forest's entrance?"

I nod. "Yes, please."

"Alright then." She turns to the dolls inside her house, "I'm going out for a moment, girls. Be right back." then locks the front door and we walk outside.

"Here, hold on to my wrist." She says as she holds out her arm to me.

I grab on to it and we slowly ascend into the sky; I guess she knew that going fast would probably hurt me, what with all the weight I am carrying with me. That much caution made the trip take a bit longer, but we arrived at our destination nonetheless.

"There you go, you should get to the village faster with that." The girl says as she sets me down on the ground while still floating in the air.

I look up at her. "Thanks for all the help; I wish I could repay you someday if possible, Miss..." My voice trails off as I remember that I never actually asked her name.

"Alice Margatroid, and don't worry about repaying me; hearing your words of gratitude is enough."

"Oh, alright then. Uh..." I take a brief look at my wristwatch, not because I want to look at the time, but because I need to make it look like I am in a hurry. "I should be going now. Goodbye, Miss Margatroid." _Gotta be professional!_

"Goodbye and try not to get in trouble again!" She says as she flies away and disappears behind the treetops.

Once she's out of view, I start heading back to the Human village. On the way back, I walk across the house from yesterday, which still had electronics lying all around it. Kind of weird, considering anyone could come and take them all away for themselves. I walk up to the front door and the sign behind the glass this time read "OPEN". I gently push it open, making a bell ring, and walk inside. Instantly, my nose is assaulted by the smelly air inside the house; it was just mold this time instead of a rotting corpse, thankfully.

There were all sorts of items on display on the shelves: a toaster, a pack of cotton swabs, a faded pocket watch, a coffee mug with "#1 DAD" printed on it, a Nokia 3310 and much more. Behind the counter was a young man with short silver hair wearing a pair of glasses; he initially had a look of mild annoyance on his face as he looked up at me from a magazine he was reading, but only for a brief moment as his expression slowly changed to a stoic one.

"Welcome to Kourindou, how may I help you?" He sets down his magazine and walk up to me.

"Don't worry, I'm just checking things out; I passed by here yesterday and the wares here caught my eye, but I couldn't enter because the store was closed." I point at one of the shelves. "Hey, are the good here used or brand new?"

"Hm..." He rubs his chin in contemplation. "Most of them do look used, but I'm not really sure."

I look at him in disbelief. "Really? You're the owner of this shop, aren't you?"

The shopkeeper shrugs. "I am, but there's no way I can precisely tell; these things come from the outside world and I just find them lying around and bring them here. Did something in particular interest you?"

I nod my head, "Sure did. Come outside with me." and then we exit the store. Once outside, I point at the many televisions and fridges lying on the ground.

"Ah, those." He flatly says. "Those were quite the hassle to bring here."

I open the door of one of the fridges and inspect the interior. "Do those still work?"

The shopkeeper shakes his head. "Unfortunately, no; I tried to turn them on using a generator, but nothing happened."

"Crap." I mutter under my breath as I close the door. _We could really use a fridge back home, but it's nothing more than a glorified cupboard if it's broken._

"Are you going to buy it?" The man was now slightly leaning against another defective fridge.

"Not now." I walk up to him. "I don't even have money with m- no, scratch that. I am carrying money with me right now, but" I open one of my backpack's pockets and show him one of my cards. "I don't suppose you accept plastic money." _Ugh,that sounded so patronizing._

He takes the card and adjusts his glasses as he takes a closer look at it, "A debit card, huh?" and gives it back to me. " It's really practical, but no; I don't work with that here. Sorry about that."

"It's ok." I put the card back inside the backpack. _Even if he DID work with it, this card's not international._ "How did you know that was a debit card anyway?"

"I'm able to tell the name and utility of an object just by closely examining it."

"This is really handy for a job like yours, isn't it?"

"It does have its limitations, though."

"Like?"

"I don't learn how to use the object in question, for example."

"So you still need a person with the proper knowledge to operate the machines for you."

He stops leaning on the fridge and stands up straight. "Exactly. You look like you know a lot about those appliances; how about you help me understand them better?"

"Let me be clear right from the start: I'm no expert on those, but I'd love to help you some other time." _As if I wasn't getting sidetracked enough._ "I'll come here once I have some free time, how does that sound?"

He nods, happy at the deal. "Perfect. Now, is thereanything else I can help you with?"

"Yes, just one last thing." I point at the household appliances with my thumb while looking at him at the same time. "Do you know someone who can fix those things?"

"The kappa at Youkai Mountain could help you with that, but humans aren't really welcome there, so..." He pauses for a moment. "There's a kappa that comes here once in a while; come here some other time and you might see her."

"Alright then, that's all. Gotta go now, have a nice day!" I wave at him and resume walking back to the village.

"Same for you! Stay safe out there and feel free to stop by any time!" He waves back.

* * *

Thirty minutes had passed ever since I left Kourindou; nothing special happened in the meantime and the Human Village was just ahead. As I enter, I give a friendly wave to the guard keeping watch, who returns the greeting with a single nod (I guess looking intimidating is also part of their job); once inside the walls of the village, I head straight to the post office. Inside the building, my skin is graced by the cold air coming out of an air conditioner, making me breathe a sigh of relief. Just like the day before, the front room was devoid of any people and the door to the back room was closed.

"Hey, Boss! Job's done!" I call out to my employer.

The only thing that I can hear is the humming of the air conditioner on the wall. I just stand there like a moron, waiting for someone to appear for 30 seconds before ringing the bell like a madman; the back room door opens slightly and a pair of eyes stares at me.

"I'm back, Boss!" I wave at him.

The door opens completely as he steps out "Yeah, I can see that much." and sits behind the counter. "So, did you manage to find the client's house?"

"Sure did; took me the whole afternoon trying to locate it, but I made it in the end."

"Good to know. Show me the client's signature, then." The old-aged man leans back on his chair.

"S-sure. Just give m-me a moment, please." I walk up to one of the benches and set my backpack on it.

This is it; the moment I feared the most. How was I going to explain to him what I saw back at the forest? I could lie to him and say that the client was not home at the time, but not with a clean conscience. Furthermore, not only I'm absolutely terrible at lying, I'll have to go back there and make the delivery again in the future. If he ends up finding out that I lied to him, I'll lose his trust at best or get fired at worst.

On the other hand, how would he react if I said that I found the client was dead in his own home? Would he even believe me? Argh, he would probably think that I killed the client! I don't want to go to jail or GET EXECUTED, but the guilt will crush me if I lie to him!

I cover my face with my hands and sigh deeply.

 _Alright, deep breaths. Gotta tell the truth; it's the right thing to do._

I walk up to the counter, "Here you go." and set the clipboard on top of it.

"Alright, let's see..." My employer grabs it and skims the front, only to look at me again with an eyebrow raised. "There's no signature on the empty space."

Without breaking eye contact, I shove my hand inside the messenger bag and pull out the package, putting it on top of the counter.

He stares at it for a moment and then looks at me again, this time with a frown. "Explain yourself. Now."

 _Here goes..._ "I went to the Forest of Magic and found the house after searching for a few hours, but I couldn't get the client's signature."

"And why is that?"

"Because he was de... he wasn't alive when I came to his house."

He closes his eyes for a moment. "This can't be true."

"I'm telling the truth, really!" I tap my hand against my sides in frustration.

The old man shakes his head. "Just tell me you didn't go to that forest already."

"I DID go there, I'm telling you! Um..." My mind lights up as I remember something I took with me as proof. _That's right, the receipt!_

I put my hand inside my pocket, pull out the now crumpled piece of paper and show it to him.

The takes it from me and, at the moment he lays his eyes on it, shows a shocked expression on his face. "That's the receipt I gave him..."

"Believe me now?"

With his shoulders slumped and eyes closed, he lets out a sigh as he puts the package away. "I didn't want to believe it, but yes, now I do. Here you go." He unlocks a drawer behind the counter and pulls a few bills of money, "Here's your payment." and gives them to me. "I'll let it pass this time, but you must tell what you saw today to Miss Keine as soon as possible, got it?"

"Yes, sir." I say as I count the money. "3560... yen?" _Didn't expect them to use actual Japanese currency here. How much is 3560 yen anyway?_

"Indeed; you're getting paid per delivery, not per hour of work." He leans on his chair as he points at a clock hanging on the wall. "Your lunch break starts now. Go grab a bite to eat and then come back here for another delivery; don't be late."

"R-Right! I'll be right back!" I quickly walk past the front door, leaving both my bags inside.

* * *

 **Deliveryman does his best now and searches around for Keine and food while getting warmly cooked by the sun. Please, wait until he's ready.**

* * *

I walk back inside the post office, my hunger sated. This time, my employer was at the front desk waiting for me.

He looks up at me from a newspaper he was reading. "So, did you find Miss Keine?"

"No sir. I asked around for her, but people said she left the village at sunrise. Probably had something important to do." I say while pulling the back of my shirt, which was glued to my back, courtesy of the sun outside.

"Hm, alright then." He glances at the bag I'm holding with my right hand. "What're you carrying in there?"

"A few things I needed to buy." I set it on the bench next to my backpacks and pull out its contents. "There's a Jin... what's the name of it again? Jin... Ah, Jinbei! Yes, a Jinbei set and a wooden toothbrush, along with a few pieces of underwear."

I put the change of clothes and underwear inside my backpack and close it. "Hey, can I leave this inside the backroom?"

"Sure, just leave it behind the counter and I'll put it there later." He says, not looking away from his newspaper.

I leave it there just as he told me to and grab my messenger bag to put the toothbrush inside of it. I stare at the toothbrush for a moment, weirded out by it.

 _The seller told me this is made out of pig bristle, just like I've read in magazines; the people here are either resourceful or really desperate._

I stuff it inside the bag and turn to him. "I'm ready. Where do I go this time?"

He sets down the newspaper and points at a name on the clipboard. "Very well. This time, the client is the... ugh, youkai hugger at the Hakurei Shrine." He says disdainfully.

 _Youkai hugger?_ "How do I get there?"

"Go to the gate on the other side of the village and follow the road. You'll eventually reach a set of stairs. Can't miss it."

"Right." I take the clipboard and put it inside my bag. "Give me the package so I can put it inside my bag."

"Well, about that..." He crouches out of view behind the counter. "HNNNNNG!"

I just stand there and wait for him to stand up again. _Is he taking a dump back there or something?_

He comes into view again, this time out of breath. "Son, you'll have to come here and get it yourself; I'll break my back if I try to lift this thing."

I walk around the counter, wondering if his age had already caught up to him. _Oh, c'mon it can't be that-_ "Oh. Wow."

The package was there, right in front of my employer, but it wasn't just a small package like the one from the last delivery. Oh, no; this one was a big-ass box that went up to my stomach. Okay, it was big, but it couldn't be that heavy right?

I grab its sides with my hands and try to lift it, but all I manage to do is make my hands slip across the reinforced cardboard.

"What the heck?! Am I supposed to deliver lead this time or what?!" I throw my hands up in frustration.

He shrugs. "I don't know. We're not allowed to open the packages, no matter what happens."

I sigh. "Guess I'll have to push it all the way to the delivery point."

"Not really. You may not be able to see it, but there are a few straps on it so that you can carry it like you did with your backpack." He (thankfully) throws my conclusion in the thrash. "Here, give me a hand."

Together, we spin the box around so that the straps face my side. I turn my back to the box, crouch so that the straps are at the same height as my shoulders and pass my arms around them.

 _Okay, here goes nothing!_

"HNNNNNG!" With a bit of difficulty, I manage to stand up while carrying the box. It wasn't heavy enough to risk breaking my back, but it was heavy enough to tire me eventually.

He looks at me, surprised, "Oh look, you managed to lift it! Didn't expect ya to lift it with that scrawny body of yours." and then walks back to the back room holding my backpack and the newspaper. "Good luck on the delivery and try not to get attacked by the youkai on the way there, or the youkai on the shrine!" The door closes before I can say anything back, but, to be honest, I didn't feel like saying anything anyway.

"Hah... Hah... Let's begin then..." I slowly walk to the front door, carrying the package with my trusty bag at my side; I push the door open and step outside. As I'm about to advance, the straps on the box tug on my shoulders and restrain me.

 _What the hell's happening?!_ I turn my head to look back at the box and, to further rub salt into the wound, it was too big to pass through the doorway.

"HEY, BOSS! I'M STUCK! GIVE ME A HAND HERE!" I yell from the doorway, but the only attention I get is from the passers-by on the street and, predictably, I only hear the air conditioner humming in the building.

I look at the ground with a bright smile on my face. "Fuck."

* * *

Author's note: Hello again, guys! Did you have a good new year's eve? I know I did, and what better way to start a new year other than a new chapter to this story? I had to take a brief break from writing it because the most recent semester at college was just brutal, but, after four attempts, I finally managed to pass my analytic geometry class! Thank freaking God for giving me the perseverance to do it. Anyway, now I'm on vacation and I can focus on writing more chapters for this story. Like always, constructive review is always welcome, especially on the pacing, character portrayal and language variety (sometimes I wonder if I'm getting them right). Thanks for reading this and have a nice day!

Writing start date: 31/10/18

Writing finish date: 01/01/19

Final revision date: 15/01/19

Post date: 01/01/19

Total number of words in this chapter: 6250


	6. Chapter 6

After finally managing to leave the post office with the package (through one of the windows, mind you), I was em route to the delivery point, which was the... Something Shrine- yeah, I kinda forgot the place's name; doesn't help that it's weird, too.

My boss, when talking about the client, called them a "youkai hugger". Are they an environmentalist, perhaps? He clearly showed dislike when talking about them. I mean, sure, environmentalists can be a weird bunch, but they have a good intentions, right? Maybe he showed dislike because the client's goals kind of get in the way of his', just like back in the outside world- yeah, that makes sense! Like, the client at the shrine protects youkai, but they make it hard to deliver things and are a problem for him, and by extension, me! Good thing I still haven't been attacked by one of them; in fact, I haven't found a single youkai so far on my job, have I?

Wait, maybe that thing back at the forest was a youkai, but I didn't really get to see what it looked like. All the other people I met seemed to be human, although Rin also did and she's a youkai. Could Alice and that shopkeeper be youkai, too? Maybe I shouldn't draw conclusions based on people's appearances.

 _I hope the boss showed me the right way; of course, I trust his direction sense more than I trust mine, but a little more assurance wouldn't be bad. A GPS would be pretty helpful right no- THAT'S RIGHT, MY PHON- no, wait, I didn't bring it with me. Last I checked, the battery was also- huh?_

The view of a very long staircase in the distance interrupts my train of thoughts, and at the very top of it, a big red arch; it looked a lot like those one would find in Japan, and, from what I know, they are usually accompanied by a shrine somewhere nearby.

 _I must be on the right track; that's good, but these stairs... shouldn't be too much trouble._

I start climbing the stairs once I reach them; step by step I am taken closer to the top. Halfway through, I stop to catch my breath. Climbing a set of stairs like this is tiring already, but doing it while carrying a heavy box is just brutal. To relax a bit, I stand up straight and twist my back in hopes of popping a few bones, but that ends up being a terrible decision as the weight of the box ends up throwing myself off balance.

"A-a-aaah!" I desperately flail my arms as I try not to fall over.

Somehow, I manage to regain my balance and, with my heart racing from what just happened, I lean on the stairs with my hands and stare at my sides; said stairs were flanked on both sides by a steep grass slope. It wouldn't matter if I fell down them or rolled down the slope; the result would be disastrous, to say the least.

 _Why the hell isn't there a handrail?!_

There was no way I was going through this again, so I decided to also use my hands to climb all the way to the top. Once I get there, I immediately move away from the edge; hopefully, going down wouldn't be as dangerous.

Anyway, back to the task at hand. I turn my back to the stairs and spot a stone road leading to a Japanese-looking shrine not too far in the distance. I pass by a few sets of stone lanterns as I walk down the road and, at the end of it, reach the shrine's front entrance.

Being supported by its wooden structure, the small shrine stood above the ground, leaving some empty space underneath; normally, this height difference would be a problem for someone wanting to get inside, but there were also wooden steps at the front to circumvent that. Lastly, in the middle of the porch, shaded by the roof but not forgotten, was a large rectangular box; its top had many side-by-side linear openings that were big enough to allow something thin to slip inside, but narrow enough not to let a hand enter. Out of curiosity, I lean in to take a peek inside; apart from a twig and a few leaves, some of them dried, it was completely empty.

 _The owner must have not gotten any mail for quite a while..._

I walk past it and, after straightening myself up, knock on the double paper doors a few times.

"Come on in!" A female voice calls out from inside.

Hearing the permission, I look around for a doorknob to twist and, since there were none, I put my hands on the left door and try pushing it to no avail.

"Hey, I think it's locked." I say, still trying to push the door.

"Nah, pretty sure it isn't. You just gotta open it!" The voice answers back.

"Alright!" I say as I steadily apply more force.

Suddenly, the lattice on the upper part of the door where I was pushing gives in, making my arms go all the way up to my shoulder deep in the hole that I accidentaly created along with my upper body, which was stopped by the unbroken part of the lattice. To avoid hitting my face, I tilt my head upwards so that my chin and neck hit it instead.

"Hrrgh!"

"What the...?!" The female inside says in a surprised tone.

"Sorry about that! Mind giving me a hand here?" I say through my gritted teeth.

"Hang in there. Geez..." The female inside says, muttering the last word.

My arms are grabbed and carefully pushed back outside. I take a step back and wait for the door to be opened; the one to the right catches my attention as it starts sliding to the right, revealing someone very familiar.

Black and white witch outfit, a faint pink apron on top of it, long blonde hair, yellow eyes... That girl in front of me was certainly Daria, Dimensional Witch from Rage of Bahamut and Shadowverse! ... At least that's who she reminded me of.

"There you go! So, whaddaya need?"

I prepare myself by clearing my throat. "Good afternoon." I flash her my ID card. "There's a delivery for... Uhm... Hold on a moment." I grab the clipboard to take a close look at the recipient's name, and when I say close look, I mean almost burying my face in it. Just like last time, I had to decipher the hieroglyphs written on it. "R-re... Uh... Rey-Reymoo Hack... ery... Oh! Reymoo Hackery of the Hackery Shrine." I look up at her again. "Is she in?"

She nods as she points at herself with her thumb with a toothy smile on her face. "Sure is! You're talking to her right now!"

"Well then, could you sign your name right here, please?" I point at an empty space on the clipboard and give it to her along with the pen.

"Righto." My client quickly writes writes her name and returns it back to me.

I stuff them back inside my bag. "Thanks. Now, where do I put the package?"

"You can leave it inside here, come on." Reymoo motions with her hand for me to enter as she steps to the side.

" 'scuse me." I say as I enter the shrine.

As if the building didn't look basic enough already, the interior managed to be the embodiment of the word 'Nondescript'. Straw mats on the ground, a small scroll hanging in the wall, a doorway that lead to somewhere else in the shrine, a potted plant in a corner and a broom in another one, that's it. Not that it was something bad; I, myself, was never a fan of living a luxurious lifestyle, and since this was my first time in a place like this, I didn't know if that was the standard for shrine decoration.

She points at the center of the room. "You can leave it right here."

I nod and, just as I am about to start putting it down, sounds of footsteps echo throughout the shrine, each of them sounding closer. "Marisa, just who the heck are you talking to?!"

Then, another girl enters the room. This one had brown eyes and black hair, was wearing a red bow on top of her head, a red sleeveless top with a white collar along with a red skirt and... hair decorations of some sort on her sidelocks.

"If you're going to stick around before the party, why don't you help me with the food..." Her words die out as soon as she enters the room and, after noticing me, she just sort of stands there staring. Creepy, I know, but I had other things to worry about, like...

I turn to the girl in a witch outfit, confused. "Marisa? I thought your name was Reymoo..."

"But it is! It's just that Marisa is a nickname and people use it because it's way cooler and doesn't sound as weird."

I nod understandingly. "Oh, okay, that makes sense. No offense, but now that you mention it, 'Reymoo' DOES sound a bit weird."

"Sure does." She nods back agreeingly.

We just stand there, nodding to each other until...

"Who the hell are you calling weird?!" The girl in the red outfit suddenly speaks out in an angry and loud tone of voice, scaring the shit out of me, but not the girl I was talking with, who breaks out in a fit of laughter instead.

She turns to me, frowning and her cheeks red, "It's 'Reimu', not 'Reymoo', and I'll have you know that my name.", pulls out of nowhere a rod similar to the festals I saw when playing Fire Emblem Fates, "Is not...!", then proceeds to whack the witch in the head with it, effectively making her stop laughing to clutch the top of her head in pain.

Finally, she turns back to me, still brandishing the rod with so much force that I could only wonder how it was still in one piece, and stares me in the eye with a look that could shut up an entire classroom filled with rowdy teenagers, make the fiercest prison inmates shit their pants and tame the most dangerous beasts known to man.

" **WEIRD!** "

Needless to say, that was successful in giving me the heebie jeebies.

"Now," She tosses the rod on the floor, producing a repeated and annoying clanking sound. "do you need something or did you come here just to make fun of me?!"

"Er, the former." I quickly, but carefully set the package on the floor and hold out the clipboard and pen. "Sorry about that. So you are Reimu Hackery, then?"

My client, for real this time, facepalms with both hands, "It's not 'Hackery', it's- ugh, you know what? Whatever.", then snatches them from me and signs in a random place on the paper.

"There." She hurredly gives them back to me, but since I didn't react in time, they slipped out of my hands and fell on the floor. "Now do me a favor" Reimu kept speaking while her eyes followed them, and once she set her eyes on the ground... "and- Ah! N-nooo!" She suddenly raises her voice and holds her head with both hands.

"Hey, relax, miss. It didn't break." I say as I duck to grab them. "See?" I even knock on the clipboard a few times to reassure her. "All good."

She points at where I'm standing on the ground, still angry for some reason. "Screw that, you're stepping on the tatami mattresses!"

I look down and, sure enough, I'm stepping on them; we even have a name for that, you know? It's called 'gravity'!

I look back up at her and chuckle a little. "What, you wanted me to float or something? Althooough..." I raise a finger. ", as weird as it sounds, I do have a friend who can-"

"TAKE OFF YOUR SANDALS BEFORE ENTERING, YOU DOLT!" This time, she completely loses her patience and outright yells at me from the top of her lungs.

Finally picking up and understanding her subtle message, I get out of the room as fast as possible through the front door, almost crashing through it as I do. "Y-yes, ma'am!"

Meanwhile, Marisa, lightly rubbing her head, had gone back to laughing at the chain of events unfolding before her.

After leaving my sandals outside, I reenter the shrine, this time barefoot. "S-sorry about that too."

"Argh, now I'll have to sweep the floor. Again." Reimu ignores my apology as she speaks to herself and opens the top of the box.

"What did you order this time?" Marisa asks as she curiously leans in to take a look inside.

"A kotatsu, and about damn time it came! I don't even remember the day I ordered it anymore!" The shrine maiden complains as she pulls out and checks various wooden parts, briefly shooting a glare at me while she's at it.

In my defense, I raise both my hands. "Hey, don't blame me; I just got this job, like, yesterday. Anyway, I'm leaving now, okay? You got your kotatsomething there and I got my signature. Job's done, see ya."

"Not so fast, buster." She gets up and points at the parts on the floor. "You're the one assembling it."

"Huh? Why?"

"Because I have other things to do and you owe me a lot."

I raise a finger. "Name one thing."

She starts walking towards me. "It took ages for me to get my delivery and you scattered dust all over my floor."

"Oh, so you're okay with the holes?"

"Huh? What holes?"

I point at the door to my left. "Those. I didn't know it was a sliding door at first. Sorry about that three."

She looks at where I'm pointing and, upon laying her eyes on them, appears to freeze for a moment. Then, she slowly grits her teeth and clenches her hands firmly, then looks back at me again, even more pissed off than before. "And because of that too! Now GET TO IT!" Reimu turns around and walks off. "And you," She passes by Marisa, who was giggling at the scene unfolding, and points at her. "move your ass!"

"Sure, hahah." The witch slowly gets up and waits for the shrine maiden to leave the room to talk to me, her laughter dying out. "Are you stupid? Why did you tell her about the door?"

I shrug. "She would have found out sooner or later; might as well come clean from the start. Or were you willing to take the heat for me?"

"Nah, just curious. By the way, don't be scared of Reimu; she's not angry like this, usually. Gotta go!" She goes after Reimu, leaving me alone in the room.

I reach inside the box and grab the remaining parts: the table top, two legs and a blanket. I put them together with the rest and then separate them all on the floor.

 _Please, tell me there's an assembly manual somewhere inside the box._

I double-check to see if there's anything remaining and, when I see nothing inside, I turn the box upside down hoping that the paper was just camouflaged or something, but nothing comes out in the end.

I put down the box along with my bag and get on my knees.

 _This should be easy enough._

* * *

"Phew, that was actually easy." I stand proudly as I look at the completed kotatsu. Putting the thing together was almost the same as a normal table, save for the blanket, which took me a while to realize that it was also part of the furniture. I mean, would there be any reason for a table top to have both an upper and a lower part other than sandwiching the cloth in between? And if the blanket was not part of it, I would have needed to deliver two packages instead of one. At least that's what I think.

I turn to look at the empty doorway: no one had come ever since I started and I could hear clattering sounds and the occasional unintelligible banter coming from the kitchen, believing that Reimu was hard at work and that Marisa most likely wasn't being spared from it either.

But for me, my job was done (even if that last part wasn't actually part of it) and I could go report to my boss back at the village. That could wait a bit, though; for now, all I wanted to do was to have some much-needed relaxing time. Let's be honest, I deserve it for all the crap I have to put up with, don't I? And besides, I want to see what the kotatsu feels like. If Reimu sees me using it, I'll tell her that I'm just doing quality and safety assurance; gotta make sure the product doesn't blow up or accidentally decapitate someone during use, after all!

I sit down with my crossed legs under the table, throw the cover over my lap and look at the tabletop.

...

 _Okay, I guess? It feels like a table, works like a table and looks like a table. What's so special about this thing?_

As I sit still looking at it, a thought crosses my mind; it's the kind of thought that doesn't come to your head when you're doing quick maths during class or willfully using your brain, but when you're taking a dump in the bathroom or contemplating the universe in your bed while trying to sleep:

What does it feel like **UNDER** the kotatsu?

I pull myself back and, after laying down on the floor, stick my upper body under the furniture. To my surprise, I am is awash in peace in a flash. The dark environment, the soft tatami mattresses under me, the warm temperature, the feeling of being covered and protected from da monsters (admit it, you've done this with a blanket at least once in your life), everything about it was simply marvelous.

 _Oh my God, this is the best thing in existence._

I just laid there and, little by little, found myself drifting off into sleep, which was facilitated by having eaten lunch not too long ago.

* * *

I slowly open my eyes as I regain my consciousness to the sound of muffled chatter. I was still stuck in limbo, the only thing separating me from the outside being a thick piece of cloth. I crawl out from under the kotatsu and my face is met with a refreshing breeze, making me wonder how I didn't suffocate down there due to the poor air circulation and all.

Once my eyes are adjusted to the room's lighting, I walk towards the door and stare outside through one of the holes I accidentally made. The sun was setting itself into the horizon, signaling the end of afternoon and the start of evening, painting the sky a orange color, but as beautiful as it looked, it was not time to appreciate it.

 _Crap, can't believe I overslept._

It was way past time to report my successful delivery and the sooner I returned to the village, the better; the first step to returning was leaving the shrine, but I couldn't just walk away. If I did that, I'd have to pass through a rather big crowd of individuals that were hanging around the grass at the side of the road.

Remembering what I've been told before coming here, I scratch it off my list of solutions out of fear. Walking through the woods surrounding the shrine is also out of question; God knows what's lurking around this place. The only I'm was getting past them without being noticed would be by disguising myself, but what could I use? It's not like I can use things from the house this time!

I grab my bag in the corner and rummage through my things. Unsurprisingly, there was nothing in there that could help me in that situation.

 _Maybe I could use a nearby bush or..._

Desperate at this point, I look around the room to see that the delivery box was still standing there, almost as if calling out for me to use it, if it was alive, that is. I wasn't very hopeful about it, but I didn't have many options left, so I had to go with what I had.

* * *

After getting my stuff and carefully cutting open a few openings in the box with a knife I found in the shrine's kitchen (and returning it after I was done), I was ready to start my escape plan.

 _I can't believe I'm doing this.  
_

I bring the box to the kitchen, where I throw it out an open window and follow along. Outside, I waste no time and immediately cover myself with it. Then, I cautiously and slowly walk around the shrine; the openings I had cut earlier allowed me to see my surroundings, preventing me from walking blindly and, since there was no safety fence at the edge, falling to the ground. I reach the front entrance, where I spot my sandals and promptly put them on. All that was left to do now was to make like eggs and scramble.

I walk to the edge of the shrine's side and jump down on the dirt ground, bending my knees as much as the space inside the box allowed to absorb the impact, then take a look around to see if I drew any attention. Thankfully, there were no noticeable responses to what I just did. I start to slowly tiptoe my way back to the stone stairs through that space in between the group and the surrounding forest, careful to not be seen.

Things started out quite easy (I'm certain that nobody would notice me even if I started juggling chainsaws with my buttcheeks, not that I can actually do that), but got trickier the closer I got to the others; I had to walk as slow as possible, make sure that no one noticed me as I was moving and be careful not to trip, all at the same time. It was risky, yes, but being closer to them also made it possible for me to observe them better.

Everyone was scattered into smaller groups; they appeared to have a lot of fun as they talked amongst themselves and laughed. There was also lots of food and drink (wish I could have some of that), but what caught my eye the most was the appearance of the guests. I only came to know that Rin was a youkai because she told me so; other than that, her appearance looked pretty much like that of a normal person. Some of the guests, on the other hand, had features that you wouldn't find on an everyday human: Insect antennae and wings, feathered wings, ice crystals, fairy-like wings, horns, bat wings, you name it. When I was staring at them from inside the shrine, I thought they were youkai, but now I was sure of it.

 _I'm glad that I decided to sneak past them. They probably would have attacked me otherwise, but if that's the case..._

To further add to my confusion, there was Reimu in the middle of one of the groups, accompanied by Marisa. They too were also having a good time, chatting with the other partygoers and eating to their heart's content. Could they also be youkai if they were totally fine? Maybe they were human and the youkai didn't mean any harm in the first place. But if that's true, then what my boss told me was a lie. Right?

Right then and there, my brain crashed like a derailed train and I ended up hurting myself in my own confusion.

*SLAP*

I shove the pile of thoughts aside and steel my resolve as I keep tiptoeing.

 _Ack, screw it! I'll just get out of here and be done with it!_

After agonizing moments trying to sneak by without being seen and, somehow, being successful, I was almost done, but I stopped as I laid my eyes on a particular individual. Silver-colored hair, a dark blue and white dress and, laying by her side, a hat that looked like the top of a shogun castle. As much as I wanted to convince myself otherwise, I was almost sure that person was Keine.

 _Really? Why do you have to appear now out of all times?!_

That situation left me at a crossoads, where I had to decide to either ignore my boss' order and head straight to the Human Village or go talk to her now and risk being discovered by the others. After a moment thinking, I decide to go talk to her; she was right in front of me, after all. At the back of my head, though, I had the feeling this was a terrible idea.

I sigh as I slowly approach her. "I can't believe I'm doing this."

My chest got tighter and tenser with each step I took, not knowing what was about to transpire. By the time I was right behind her, I was trembling like a leaf.

Mustering all my strength, I whisper to her " _H-hey, Keine..._ ".

Unfortunately, she doesn't appear to hear me as the background noise drowns out my voice.

Cursing my luck, I try again to attract her attention. " _Keine...!_ "

This time, she hears me and looks behind her to see a pair of eyes staring at her from inside a big box. A few seconds pass as she looks at me with weirdness on her face, not that I can blame her for that.

" _Hey. Look, I have something important-_ "

She doesn't even wait for me to finish my sentence as she starts talking with unease and in a rather loud tone, much to my horror. "Nakam-"

I react in a split second and try to stop her from further talking. " _Shhh! Yes, it's me! It's Nakamura, so tone it down!_ "

Thankfully, this makes her stop talking as she silently looks at me. I breathe deeply and go on.

" _Come closer, I've got to talk to you._ "

" _Do you? Good, because I've got to talk to you too._ " She says as she scuttles closer.

" _Oh, r-really? What is it?_ "

" _Where the heck have you been?! Rin and I have been looking everywhere for you!_ "

 _Oh crap. This was bound to end badly, wasn't it?_ " _I... had something important to do._ "

" _Important enough to disappear out of a sudden and leave her worried sick?!_ "

I swallow deeply, a sense of guilt growing on me. " _Sorry!_ _I'm sorry, okay?_ _It wasn't my intention. Anyway,_ w _here is she now?_ "

She points to the space at the side of where she was before " _There._ "

A person was laying on their side where she was pointing at. Blonde hair, light pink dress, yadda yadda; it was Rin alright, but she didn't appear to be very well to be lying down like this, and there were lots of bottles all around her too. Coincidentally, she let out an audible sniffle as we both stared at her.

"Geez, w _hat happened to her? She looks a bit... immobile._ " I say.

"W _e couldn't find you all day and she was getting more and more agitated, so I brought her here to see if she would calm down a little and she did, only after downing too much sake, though._ "

" _Holy shit, she drank all that?!_ "

" _Yeah, and she stopped crying for now, but once she sobers up..._ " She covers her face with her hands, then points at me, visibly upset. " _Listen, it's because of YOU that she's like this, so you better set things straight or else!_ "

 _"Alright, how am I supposed to remove her drukenness?_ "

" _Forget her drunkenness, I want you to go talk to her so she stops feeling dejected._ " She then grabs the lower part of my box, " _And stop being a weirdo and get out of that box already!_ ", and flips it, revealing me.

At first, I look around in panic as my heart races, fearing for my life, but I slowly calm down as I see that nothing bad was actually happening. Everyone was still partying, eating and having fun, except for me, Keine and probably Rin. Maybe the others had not noticed me yet.

 _Alright, just don't make too much noise and it should be fine._

I crouch walk up to Rin, avoiding tripping on any of the bottles lying around and stop in front of her. Not only was she smelling of alcohol, but I could see how humid the front part of her dress was (wether it was with sake or tears, I don't know). It was pretty hard to look at, especially when I knew it was because of me.

" _Hey, Rin. Wake up, come on._ " I say as I gently nudge her, only stopping once she starts to move about.

She slowly opens her eyes as she sits down, still groggy from the alcohol or being asleep, and starts to take in her surroundings until our gazes happen to meet, which is when she stops and stares at me much like a computer trying to process too much information at once. I nervously watch as she reaches out with her hands and starts feeling my upper torso, followed by my shoulders, then my face. Normally, having someone touch and dirty the lenses of my glasses would really annoy me, but I let it pass this time.

"Naka? Is that you?" She asks as she presses my cheeks together.

"Yesh. Missh me?" I try to speak with her as if nothing happened, hoping that she won't lash out at me.

She widens her eyes and finally seems to understand that it's really me that is crouched before her and not some evil clone, and with her mood suddenly brightened, proceeds to pounce at me out of freaking nowhere, the force of which is enough to knock me off balance and make me land on my back with her laying on top of me!

"Ahahahaha! Naka! Keine was right; you DID come back!" She says while happily embracing me.

There was nothing wrong with her being back to her cheery self; in fact, she looked way better with a smile on her face. However, she ended up being a little (just a little) bit too enthusiastic and loud in that display of affection of hers, loud enough to make some heads turn to our direction.

 _SHIT, SHE'S GOING TO BLOW MY COVER!_

I frantically scramble back to a sitting position (which is kinda difficult when there's a girl clinging on to you) and try my best to ignore the unwanted attention and looks from the others.

" _Hey, don't be so loud._ " I whisper to Rin as she slowly settles down, then I turn to Keine and motion for her to come closer.

She comes over to me. "She looks way more at ease now. Can you keep her company for the rest of the night?"

I give her a nod, not minding it at all. "Don't worry, I'll take care of her."

"Alright." She turns to Rin. "I'm going to join the others now, okay, Rin?"

"Hmhmm." is all that she says.

"Then I'll be going. Enjoy yourselves!" She gets up and walks off to another group, leaving us alone.

Ignoring how scary she was looking moments ago when angry, it was pretty sweet of her to help Rin look for me and bring her here so she could cheer up. By the way, I feel like I'm forgetting something really important here.

 _...Oh crap!_

I was supposed to talk to Keine about what I found at the Forest of Magic! It's the only reason I didn't leave at once to begin with! It was too late, though, as she was too far away for me to call out to her without being too noisy. That was probably a good thing, now that I think about it; this surely isn't a good place to discuss such a serious matter. Oh well, no use worrying about it, as there's always another chance in the future. That and I have something else to take care of; a drunken kirin, to be more precise. Not that it would be hard; I just have to make sure she doesn't do anything stupid and she seems to be content enough with staying by my side while downing a bottle of sake.

"So..." I try to break the silence between us. "You liking this party?"

"A lot, but it's much better now that you're here with me!" She stops drinking to lean her head on my shoulder. "What about you? Are you liking it too?"

"More or less. I don't feel very comfortable here to be honest."

"Why?"

"To begin with, I can count the number of people I know in my hand."

"Oh." She nods understandingly. "Does your hand have a lot of fingers, then?"

"Wha- no! What I'm saying is that I don't know almost anyone here."

"Hm..." She thinks for a moment before she rises her finger as a figurative litten light bulb appears over her head. "Don't worry, I know what to do!"

Having a bad feeling about what she's going to do, I get up as fast as a person running to the bathroom after letting out a wet fart.

"HEY GU-"

I cover her mouth with my hand just in time to muffle her voice to stop her from further making things even worse. Thankfully, she sits down after push I her down hard enough and I remove my hand after feeling that she isn't trying to talk anymore.

The kirin looks at me as I breathe heavily, my stomach in knots. "Hey, why did you do that?"

I look at her, brows furrowed. "Jesus Christ, Rin! What were you trying to do?!"

"You said you didn't know a lot of people here, so I was going to present you to them."

"I never said I wanted to know them in the first place!"

"Oops, sorry about that." She holds out the bottle to me. "Want some booze? It'll make you relax."

"No, thanks. I'm good."

"Come oooon, you'll like it!" She brings it closer to my face.

"Ugh, okay, fine." I say as I take it from her.

The smell of alcohol becomes noticeably stronger the closer I bring it to my mouth. Wanting to get this over with, I take a sip from it. And I immediately regret doing so. Not only did the drink taste terrible, but it also left a burning trail in my gullet like magma as it descended until it finally settled down in my stomach.

 _What is the alcohol content of this thing? Better yet, how did Rin manage to down so many bottles of this?!_

I guess alcohol was never my thing, not that I can't hold my liquor- wait, I can't really assert that; I've never got drunk or anything close... And I plan to stay that way! As far as I know, having a hangover doesn't sound very pleasant.

Rin holds out her hand. "So, what do you think? Good, huh?"

"Yeeeeaah, no."

"Fine by me, I get to have more to drink!" She leans in to take the bottle from my hands, but I lean away from her at the same time, keeping it out of her reach.

"No, you've had too much."

"A-ah, but... I only had a few!" She starts to fidget in place, growing impatient.

I point at the many bottles laying on the grass around her. "Sure. Just a few." I say sarcastically.

She looks at them for a moment before turning back to me. "I need more!"

"Stop insisting, Rin."

"Gimme more! If you don't, I... I will...!" She pouts at me in a very cute manner.

 _Dang it, just let it go already!_ "You what?"

"... I'll cry!"

Seconds turn to hours as the time seems to slow down due to the intensity of our clash of gazes, which was strong enough to make it look like everything else around me was fading away, leaving only my opponent in front of me. The thought of making her cry was truly devastating to me, but I also had made a promise, and I was hell-bent on fulfilling it. Even if it meant having her throw a tantrum, drawing everyone's attention and triggering my (not so) crippling anxiety!

Moments before I'm about to crack down, she does it before me! "Aaargh! Geez, Naka, why are you being so mean to meee?!" She whines while comically flailing her arms at me.

"I'm supposed to take care of you, and that includes not letting you enter alcoholic coma!" I say as I harden my arm muscles to better absorb the blows. This seems to tire her out eventually as she stops throwing a hissy fit.

"Okay, fine! If you're going to be like that..." The kirin pulls a tray chock-full of delicious-looking snacks close to me and proceeds to lie down on the grass, using my lap as a pillow. "Then I want you to feed me!"

 _Whatever makes her calm down._ "Sure, that I can do." Putting the bottle away, I silently bless the food and grab a pair of chopsticks. I'd go with just using my bare hands, but I haven't washed my hands in a while and trying to clean them with booze would make a big mess.

I grab a sushi roll from the tray and bring it to her, putting my hand under it just in case it slips away.

Rin opens her mouth and waits for it. "Aaaaah..."

I let go of the food and gravity does the rest of the job; it falls into her mouth and she happily munches it as I stare at her from above, ready to feed her the next one. That is, until her eyes open wide and she suddenly jolts up like a freaking catapult, almost hitting my nose in the process, and coughs out chunks of chewed food.

Worried about her, I pat her back a few times. "Hey, are you alright? Did you choke?"

She shakes her head. "No, there just was fish in it, yuck! Try not to feed it to me again, will you?"

"Will do. Sorry about that." _Is she a vegetarian? Or should I say... vegetaRin? Heh._

She then managed to eat almost all the food on the tray, leaving only the ones which had meat as one of their ingredients to me.

* * *

I sigh as I look at the starry night sky above me. Even though light travels at the fastest speed possible, it still takes ages to reach earth. Heck, light coming from our sun takes 8 minutes to reach us, and it's kinda far away; now imagine stars from other galaxies. Yes, I may be staring at light coming from stars who may not even exist anymore! This goes to show how the universe is fleetin- wait, I'm starting to think some really deep things here. Gotta think about something simpler or else my brain will fry.

 _Man, the night sky looks really beautiful today. So many stars and not a single cloud._

I take a look around. How long would this party go on?! It felt like it was a long time ever since it started, yet everyone was just as lively as when I joined, and this included Rin, who wasn't eating or drinking anymore, but was hugging my left arm quite tightly.

I gently shake her shoulder with my free arm. "Hey, can you ease up on the hug a bit?"

All she does is shake her head, still holding it firmly.

"No, really. It's starting to go numb!"

"I can't! I have to do this!" She says, seemingly worried about me.

"Really? And why is that?" I patiently ask.

"Because I'm protecting you!"

I stare at her for a moment, trying to digest the statement. Who was she protecting me from? Was there someone looking to harm me? How long were they around and where were they? I even watched the forest surrounding the shrine, but found nothing there! My body starts to become afflicted with anxiety again, my heartbeat rate steadily increasing.

I take a moment to breathe before speaking again. "Hey..." I was torn between trying to forget the subject and pursuing it further. Ceding in to my curiosity, I gulp hard and brace myself for the worse. "... who are you protecting me from?"

"Don't you know?" She stares at me with a neutral expression and gives me her answer: "From the _**others**_!"

It hits me like a punch in the gut, hard enough to almost make my soul jump out of my body and amplifying my anxiety tenfold. If how I was before was bad, things were much worse now: Quivering body, ragged breathing, chills running down my spine.

"I also noticed that some of them have been staring at you for a while."

I do not make even the slightest effort to look around, fearful of meeting gazes with them. Does that mean that if she wasn't there with me, I would have been attacked right away? Was she the only thing stopping me from getting killed? Wait, there's Keine too, right? But even then, they would be massively outnumbered! I did not get up and run away as fast as I could because I knew my best chance at survival was literally by my side, but she couldn't fly me away, not in the state she was in!

Gathering my remaining courage, I ask her one final question, though I'm unable to say the last part: "Is... is it because they're... they're..."

Without having any second thoughts, she nods, confirming what my boss told me and giving me a good reason to be scared:

"Yep! It's because they're all girls!"

Holy shit, it's just as my boss told me. 'Try not to get attacked by girls on the way there or in the shrine.' He was right all alon... wait a moment, he didn't say that to me.

"Erm... girls?" I ask Rin, double-checking to make sure I heard her right.

She firmly nods once. "Hmhm. In case you didn't notice, you're the only guy here!"

 _Is this one of her drunken delusions?_ "Really? That can't be true." I skeptically say as I look around myself.

Girls. Girls here, girls there, girls everywhere. Oh, hey! Isn't that Alice sitting next to Marisa? Anyway, everywhere I look: double X chromossome. Not a single one of them is staring at me, though I see no other males around, excluding myself. Huh.

I look back at Rin. "Okay, you're right about that last one, I guess. Still, I don't see anyone observing me, not that I want to, mind you."

"It's because they're being very subtle. I myself only noticed it a while ago."

"And why would they stare at me like a buncha stalkers anyway?"

"Duh, because they want to take you away from me and have you all to themselves!" She says as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

To me, it wasn't obvious, more like... Silly? Absurd? Unlikely? Something like that. And it was so 'something like that' that I couldn't say anything in response and simply sat there in silence, staring at her.

"..." _What._

"But don't worry! I won't let them take you away! If I keep this up, you'll be totally safe with me!" The peppy kirin says as she nuzzles my arm rather affectionately.

 _Screw it, I'm done._

I get up from the grass. "That's enough party for today. Come on, Rin, we're leaving."

She gets up too, but all that alcohol makes her lose her balance as she's about to take her first step. "Sure! Where are we going th- whoa!"

Luckily for her, I manage to catch her before she hits the ground. I can't have her fly me back home like this in complete darkness, can I? Walking down the stairs also does not sound like a good option.

"I don't know. Any ideas?"

She thinks for a moment before pointing to the shrine. "The shrine. Let's go there."

"Oookay?" I say as put her arm over my shoulder and hold her left side. I slowly walk back to the shrine I came from, this time together with her.

"Bye Keine, 'till next time!" Halfway through, she gives a loud goodbye to Keine as we pass by her; I just give her a small hand wave together with a smile.

At that point, I was not worried about standing out anymore. The sheer ridiculousness of Rin said to me earlier was pretty effective at distracting me from my anxiety; my body wasn't even trembling anymore. Arriving at the shrine, we walk around it and stop at the back.

Rin points at the empty space under the shrine. "Right here, let's get in."

We kneel and crawl under the building, with me going first. It was a bit dusty down there and there was not much space to move around freely. I also couldn't see anything because there was no light source.

"What are we doing here anyway?"

"Sleeping, silly!"

"Sleeping. Here." _It's not a comfy and warm bed, but it's better than sleeping under the stars, I suppose._ "Whatever." I say as I take off my glasses and leave them beside my bag.

Before I can relax, however, I feel Rin tug on my shirt. "Hey, Naka..."

"What is it?" I lean in closer her.

Suddenly, two arms grabs me and my body starts to be dragged.

I reach out and struggle to push myself away from her. "Hrrrgh! Rin, what are you doing?!"

"You gotta stay close to me or else they will come and take you away while you're asleep!" She says as she slowly pulls me closer.

"You're worrying too much! They won't do anything like that!"

"Yes, they will, but I won't let them! You're mine! Only mine!"

As much as I tried, she, being a youkai, was too strong for me to break free and it wasn't long before she managed to totally subdue me, embracing my head tightly, locking my arms on my sides and putting a leg over my lower body to keep me from squirming. I was being pressed against a soft and fluffy surface, so it wasn't hurting at all, but...

"There you go~. Doesn't that feel better?" She asks while caressing the top of my head.

"Hmrmph mmmrrph hmmph!" I answer, sounding similar to Pyro from Team Fortress 2.

She giggles a bit, amused. "Good to know you like it! Now have a good night of sleep because we have a lot of stuff to do tomorrow, together!" I feel her press herself against me tighter as she yawns deeply. "Good night, Naka..."

Not too long after, she is already peacefully sleeping and having good dreams. As for me...

 _I'm not even feeling sleepy._

Seriously, now. Can I have a medal for having endured all that stuff back there or did I just do my obligation?

 _Man, I hope Rin doesn't get pissed at me when she wakes up. She's not going to vomit during her sleep too, right? That would be horrible. For now, I'll just stay put and wait for sleep to set in. Maybe counting sheep will speed things up. One, two, three..._

* * *

 **Author's note:** And so, another chapter is concluded, even though it took about... hold on a moment. *Checks calendar and post date of the chapter before* THREE MONTHS?! Sorry to keep you guys waiting for so long! College has not been very kind to me this semester and things aren't looking so good, to be honest. Even though I don't make a habit of writing this story every day, I can really get into it when I put in the effort and I really enjoy it because it helps me forget my worries, if only momentarily. Moving on...

To make it up for you guys, I made this chapter much longer than normal. Speaking of which, I really enjoyed writing this one and I'm pretty satisfied with how it turned out to be. Thank you for reading this story; I hope you've been enjoying it so far! And with this, I'm out! Have a nice day!

Writing start date: 16/01/19

Writing finish date: 07/04/19

Post date: 14/04/19

Total number of words in this chapter: 8356


	7. Chapter 7

My consciousness slowly comes back as I wake up from my sleep. With my eyes still shut, the first thing I notice is the sensation of having my face buried in a very comforting surface combined something wrapped around my body, impeding me from moving about. As I try to comprehend what the heck's happening, a nearby sound interrupts my thoughts.

" _Hmmmm..._ "

 _What was that sound?_ _Wait..._

Recalling what happened last night, my body tenses up and I realize that my face is not buried in a pillow, but Rin's chest. She was still soundly sleeping while cuddling me and, from the looks of it, we stayed like this all night.

 _Wow, that really happened, didn't it?_

Being in her arms brought a comfortable, warm and safe feeling to me, but also the need to badly move my limbs, which were tingling from the lack of movement. Even as she slept, Rin was still tightly holding me close to make sure I didn't escape; I couldn't even move my arms and nudge her awake like I had done yesterday.

As I laid there, thinking what to do, an idea came into my mind: I couldn't nudge her awake with my arms, but I could use my **entire body**! Or I could simply stay still and wait for her to wake up, but that wasn't really an option.

Gathering my inner strength, I start fidgeting my body with the energy of a moth caught in a bug zapper. It felt pretty weird vigorously rubbing my face against her chest, but such was the price of my freedom. After all, YOU CAN'T MAKE AN OMELETTE WITHOUT BREAKING A FEW EGGS!

... God, that phrase is so cheesy.

Rin's restraints on me becomes gradually looser as I move and I look up as soon as I'm able to, staring at her now half-open eyes. We exchange looks while I patiently let her take everything in completely.

"Mmmmhhhh... N-Naka... mura?" She asks, a bit less dazed.

"Hey there." _Get ready, man. Here it comes._ "Look, I know this is very weird, but I assure you I can- aaackmmmppphh!" Before I can finish my sentence, she embraces me again, burying my head in her chest.

"Nakamura, thank goodness I found you! Where have you been all this time?!" She says, completely relieved.

 _About... one-third of it by your side._ "Well, it's kind of a long story." Is what I wanted to say, but it came all muffled instead.

"Oh, sorry about that." She lets go of me and backs away a bit, leaving me some much needed space to breathe.

"Alright." I breathe deeply. "This is going to take a while to explain, but can we get out of here first? This place's too stuffy."

"Uhh..." She looks at me, but is unable to give me an answer.

"Rin?"

" _Hmmmm..._ " I hear that same sound from before.

Initially, I thought it was coming from Rin when she was asleep. Problem is, it wasn't. It was coming from behind me, which means she was staring in my direction, but not me specifically.

I blink a few times. _OH SHIT._

Turning around in a flash, my heart beating like crazy, I come face to face with a little girl whose features make it really easy to identify her as a youkai; namely, a pair of horns on her head, a blue ribbon tied to the end of one of them. She was wearing a sleeveless pale pink blouse along with a purple and pink skirt that went down to her shins. Clutched in her hands was a weird looking container that I remembered seeing before. If I'm not mistaken, it was when I watched Naruto as a kid; There was that some creepy-looking guy that also used something similar to what she was holding. Thankfully, I wasn't about to find out if she could crush me with sand because she was sleeping like a log, a smile plastered on her face.

Still, it was pretty weird having her together with us. I mean, did she come here while I was sleeping? Because I don't remember seein- oh, wait. It was totally dark here at night. Um...

I would have heard her if she was around when we crawled down here, and Rin also wanted to be somewhere where there were only the two of us. By the way, she said that the others would try to take me away in my sleep. Was this girl one of them? She was really close to me and I hadn't moved too much up until now, which meant that I was probably sandwiched while sleeping; it would have felt way better if it wasn't for the fact that this girl was a complete stranger to me and that she was smelling of alcohol, too.

I turn to Rin and point a finger at the girl. "You know her?"

"No, I don't. Come on, let's get out of here." She says hastily while gently pulling me by the wrist.

"Hold on." I say as I grab my bag and put on my glasses. " 'kay, let's go."

We crawl our way out from under the shrine, leaving the girl sleeping alone. Our faces are bathed by the sunlight as we make it outside, making me shield my eyes with my hands.

"Where the heck are we?" Rin complains to herself while rubbing her forehead.

"The Hackery Shrine." I look at her, surprised. "Have you never been to this place?"

She lightly shakes her head. "No. How did we even get here?"

"I will fill you in on the way back... er, where are we going now?"

"Home. We really need to clean ourselves up and I'm starving here."

"Alright then, follow me. I know where the exit is." We make our way to the stairs. "So, what is the last thing you remember from yesterday?"

She thinks for a moment before answering. "Searching for you together with Keine; everything after that is a blur."

"There was a party here at the shrine and she told me she brought you here to chill out after the failed search because you were too distressed."

"Yeah, I remember that part, but why can't I remember what happened at the party?"

 _Okay, just put it as mildly as you can._ "Well... you got pretty wasted." _THAT'S NOT MILD AT ALL!_

"Oh." She pulls the top part of her wrinkled dress and smells it. "That explains the stench... and the headache."

Makes me wish I had an ice-cold can of Coke with me so I could give it to her.

We reach the stairs and, after grabbing me by my sides, Rin takes flight, sparing me from having to go down them.

 _Man, do I missed this view._

Rin speaks up, catching my attention. "What happened during the party? Did I cause too much trouble there?"

I think as everything she did the night before comes to my mind. "Eh, not really."

"Are you sure about it?"

"Totally." _Not after I joined you, that is._ "You were just a bit loud and very clingy."

"W-what do you mean by 'clingy'?" She asks, the curiosity in her voice apparent.

"The usual stuff, you know..."

"No, I don't. Tell me." She flatly says.

"It is nothing you need to concern yourself with, ok? Let's just leave it at that."

Our movement comes to a halt as Rin abruptly stops going forward.

" _Tell me._ " She says again an a more demanding but not menacing way.

"Okay, okay!" I concede to her. "Once you found me, you never left my side for a single moment; you just sat there, hugging my arm and drinking sake. When I stopped you from drinking, you made me feed you while you rested your head in my lap."

"Oh, uhhh, I... see. Is that... all that h-happened?" Rin nervously asks.

"Nope, when it was time to leave, I decided that having you fly me back home in the dark was too dangerous, so we found a place to sleep the night. Before going to sleep, you insisted that we cuddle for my safety, so we cuddled until a few moments ago."

"..."

For a moment, I hear no response from her and we just stand there, awkwardly hovering in the air. Had something happened to her? Did I do something that I shouldn't, or perhaps say something offensive to her? She's going to get angry at me, isn't she? Oh crap, now I've got it coming!

I slowly look up. "...Rin?"

"..." No response is given from her.

 _Great, now she's going to give me the cold shoul-_

"Wha... What I... You- I- aahh!" She speaks up, but her words come out one on top of each other like an american football dog pile.

The kirin then looks down at me, our gazes meeting; her face was as red as the filling of a delicious cherry pie.

"Did we really do that?!" She frantically asks.

"Uh, yes, we did. You kept me close to you like a body pillow. Didn't you notice when you woke up?"

She thinks a bit before putting all the pieces together. "Ack, so that's why we were like that!" She breathes out heavily as she stares forward. "Oh, man..."

 _Uh-oh, she looks kinda down now. Maybe I should say something to cheer her up, but what? Hm... Got it!_

"Hey, relax, okay? If it makes you feel better, cuddling you felt kinda nice."

My statement grabs her attention, making her stare at me in shock. "Huh?!"

"I mean, yeah, you forced me to do it, but it was really warm and comfortable; I even managed to sleep quite easily, too."

"D-don't just say it like that!"

 _Crap, did I read the situation wrong?_ "Uh, was I supposed to hate it or something?"

"No, you were... Jus-just change the subject already!"

"Look, I'm sorry if I made you feel uncomf-"

"Change it!" She cuts me off and goes back to flying forward, albeit quite faster than before.

"Okay, fine!" _Come on, think about something else, quick!_

I look down ahead of us and notice the Human Village coming closer.

 _Hey, that's right!_ "Do you mind if we stop by the village for a moment?"

"What for?"

"I will tell you later. Just take me there, please."

She ponders before giving me her answer. "Alright, but don't take too long."

I nod at her. "Thanks! It'll be quick, I promise."

She starts to lower our altitude until we land on a dirt path not too far from one of the gates and advance towards it. As we pass by the entrance, I give a lighthearted greeting to a pair of guards keeping watch, who opted to just stare at us instead of responding. After entering the village, we walk for a couple meters until we reach the post office and stop in front of it.

"Stay here for a moment. I'll be right back." I say to Rin and walk to the front door.

I grab the doorknob and open the door, just in time to face my boss as he's about to leave the building.

"Oh, good morning, boss!"

"Good morning, kid. Already here to report the delivery?"

I nod. "Yes, this one was way quicker than the last one. May I enter?"

He shrugs, turns around and walks inside. "Come in."

Reaching the front counter, I open my bag and hand him the clipboard. "There you go."

"So, how were things there? Did you manage to leave in one piece?" He asks as he checks it.

"There was a party there yesterday evening with lots of youkai, but everything went smoothly." _Mostly._

"Good to know." He then shows the clipboard to me. "What is this random signature here?"

"The client's."

He then points at the one in the empty space. "And what about this one?"

"The person who I thought was the client."

"Oh, okay." He answers, then stops to think for a bit. "...wait, what do you mean?"

"I wasn't sure if I needed to deliver the package to the specific client or someone else staying with them, so I ended up asking for two signatures in the end." I look to my right and chuckle, embarassed. "What was I supposed to have done in that case?"

"Just getting one signature from one of the residents would have been more than enough; it's already dangerous enough walking to such a place." The elderly man shakes his head, disgruntled. "Imagine if the recipient wasn't there. What would you have done? Come back another day? We have better things to do with our time, you know!" He lectures me, the last part being said quite angrily.

"Oh, hm..." Taken aback by his tone, I find it hard to say something back. "Sounds like this has already caused trouble for you before."

"You don't know the half of it!" He shoots back, even more aggravated than before. "The rules say we have to deliver to the client and nobody else, but I've lost count of how many times I've had to redo my deliveries just because they weren't home! It was annoying, but I could manage it back when I was young." He slams the his open hands against his chest. "But do I look like I'm still in condition of doing that nowadays?!"

"Er..." I try to think of a way to answer without being rude.

"DO I?" He loudly presses me for an answer.

"N-no, sir!"

"Exactly! I'm too old to care about this shit and I've stopped caring a long time ago! Most of the damn rules we're expected to follow don't actually help anyone; they're only good at making our job even harder and slower! You should be grateful that I'm not making you follow them like my boss did to me when I was a trainee like you!"

 _Wow, he may be demanding but he's really reasonable and down-to-earth too._

"Is that why my job interview was fast and I was hired on the spot?"

He points at me with a serious look on his face. "Yes, and you better not tell anyone about this."

I raise my hands. "My lips are sealed."

"Good." He opens a drawer, pulls out an envelope, places a few bills inside it and gives it to me. "Now, here's your pay and let's get out of here before I end up having a heart attack."

"Hold on, aren't there any deliveries for me to do today?"

"No, we're closing early today and won't be opening tomorrow, so you have some much deserved time to rest. If you haven't noticed, I was about to leave when you showed up, now let's get out of here already."

"Wait, I still have to get my backpack!"

He facepalms, "Oh, for the love of- wait here." and then enters the back room, only to return with my backpack on his hands.

"There." He quickly gives it to me and starts to push me towards the front door. "Now let's go, comeoncomeoncomeon."

Once we get out, he locks the front door. "See you in a few days, kid. Rest well and have a nice day."

"You too, boss!" I say as he's already walking away.

 _Jesus, that guy needs to take some relaxation therapy classes, or get some scented candles, or take a nice herbal bath... or smoke some weed, I don't know. I hope this job doesn't leave me stressed like him..._

I look around and notice that Rin was still standing there, waiting for me.

"Sorry to keep you waiting." I walk up to her.

"Did something serious happen to you?"

"Nothing major, why?"

"I don't know, that man seemed so... confrontational." She worriedly looks at my boss as he walks off.

"Oh, that. Relax, he's a nice person." I extend the envelope to her with both my hands. "Anyway, look at what I got!"

"Hm? What's that?" She takes and unfolds it, revealing the contents inside. "Where'd you get this money?"

"Remember when, at some point, you came back here to pick me up, but couldn't find me anywhere?"

"What about it?"

I point to the post office behind me with my thumb. "Well... I managed to get a job here! That, and I got some money for us."

She nervously looks to my side, unable to make eye contact with me. "Uh... I DID tell you that I hardly ever use money, right?"

"I know, but I..." I stop for a moment to think of a good way to phrase it. "I wanted to show you how grateful I am for all you've done for me so far, and that was the only thing that came to my mind."

"Hmm, I see." She stares at the opened envelope.

Hearing her less-than-enthusiastic response, my mood deflates rather quickly as my expectations are crushed. I had gone through so much for that money and was hoping it would all pay off, yet Rin was not happy with that in the least. Granted, she didn't have the obligation of having her mind blown or anything, but taking into consideration the fact that I didn't have much else going on for me and all the effort I put into it, I was expecting a little more out of her. Was it selfish of me for feeling like that? I didn't know for sure, but that was how I felt in the end.

 _Geez, don't be so surprised..._

"...I guess you can't have too much money. Thanks for that." She folds it, puts it inside one of her pockets and gives me a smile.

"You're welcome." I try my best to answer her in a normal way, but deep down, the damage was already done.

"Is there anything else you want to do here?"

"No, let's just go home."

We exit the village and take off to the sky, Rin's home being our destination. To make sure my backpack doesn't accidentally slip from my hands, I wear it in my front. After a while flying, she lowers me down as we near her house until we land in front of her doorstep. Once she unlocks the door, we step inside.

 _Phew, it's been a while._

Rin turns to me in the middle of the room. "Is it okay for me to shower or do you want to go first?"

I shake my head. "Go ahead. I'll organize my stuff in the meantime."

"Right." She walks into my, or rather, her bedroom and comes out with a change of clothes and a towel, then wastes no time in walking to the bathroom.

I go to the bedroom and, since I would be taking a bath soon, sit on the ground with both bags and start sorting out my belongings.

 _Okay, the new clothes and underwear comes first._

I take the jinbei and fundoshi I bought at the village and put them all on top of the bed.

 _Hey, there's my toothbrush too._

I open my messenger bag and grab it and my T-shirt; the former joins the others and the latter, being all sweaty, stays on the ground by my side.

 _Now, onto my electronics._

There actually wasn't much to do about them; they all were where I wanted them to be, except my cellphone, which I connected to my solar charger and put under the light coming out of the bedroom window.

 _As for my documents and pocket knife, do I even need them?_

I grab my wallet, put the remaining money inside it and put it back in the backpack along with the pocket knife.

 _There, all done._

All I had to do now was to wait for Rin to finish using the bathroom. As I'm sitting on the ground waiting for my turn, a random thought comes into my mind: I had forgotten to talk to Keine. Again. Mentally kicking myself, I rip a blank page out of my notebook and grab a pen and start writing on it; about how I'd gone to the Forest of Magic, found the house and its owner, who didn't seem to be alive anymore but was still moving by the time I'd found him and about the close encounter with the strange figure wandering the woods.

After I'm done writing it, I fold it a few times and place it in my pocket just in time to see Rin appear in the doorway.

"There, you can go now. Just leave your dirty clothes on a corner after you're done; I'll deal with them later." She points to the now vacant bathroom.

" 'Kay." I grab my change of clothes along with my toothbrush and go take a much needed bath.

* * *

I walk into the kitchen, feeling completely refreshed and clean. Rin was standing at the sink, watching water coming from the faucet slowly fill a metal pot.

"Hm?" She turns to look at me. "Yes, please. There are a few peeled vegetables on the table; you can slice them while I heat the water."

I walk to the table and get to work. Given that the pot was kinda big in size, it would take a while for the water to start boiling; that allowed me to take my time cutting them.

"What are you going to make this time?" I stop cutting to briefly look at her.

"Just a vegetable soup, nothing special." She closes the faucet just as the pot is half full, or half empty, or anything that indicates that one half of it is filled by water and the other by air, lifts it, and places it on top of the unlit wood-burning stove.

I quickly turn back and resume my task.

"By the way, what was that bag you were carrying with you earlier?" She asks me as I have my eyes fixed on the cutting board.

"I got it when I was hired. I use it to do my deliveries."

"I know that. I'm talking about the other one; the black one with two straps."

"That's the bag I had with me before coming here; I used to use it to carry my books around."

"Where did you manage to get it? Was it far from here?"

"Yes, it was. I got it in the Forest of Magic."

"Y-you... what?!" My response makes her stutter in disbelief. "You went there?! Why would you do that?! That place is dangerous!"

 _Crud, shouldn't have said that. Here it comes..._

"I had to deliver something to a person living there; it was only this one time, relax." I brush off her remark and to reassure her.

"What if something happened to you there?"

"Don't worry, everything turned out fine in the end." I answer her, starting to get annoyed at her overreacting.

"But what if it didn't?! You could end up injured or worse!"

"I KNOW that, Rin; I was there." I mentally sigh as I cut the vegetables, noticing myself gradually applying more force when pushing the knife down.

I hear the sound of footsteps and, from my peripheral vision, I see her walk to my side, standing within arm's reach of me. "Don't do that ever again without telling me, understood?"

"Yeah, yeah, I GET IT." By this point, I'm just staring at the cutting board, waiting for her to change the subject and leave me alone already. After what happened at the village, my mood wasn't at its brightest and I just wanted her to forget it and move on so I could do my damn work.

"Please, look me in the eyes when you say that, Nakamura."

 _Oh, you've got to be fucking...!_

Sighing audibly, my temper really close to blowing up like an unsafe pressure cooker, I put the knife aside, almost slamming it on the table, and then turn to her, a scowling expression on my face.

 _Goddammit, Rin, can't you just CAN IT ALrea... dy..._

 _..._

 _..._

When I turned to her to repeat myself, really close to verbally lashing out at her, our gazes met, and what I saw was not something I expected to see at all.

Rin...

She was standing there staring at me, not with anger, not with disbelief, not with seriousness, but with... sadness. Just sadness. Her body expression wasn't showing any fear and, considering how strong she was, being a youkai, she could beaten me up pretty bad for giving her attitude. She had all the liberty to do it. She didn't have the obligation to provide for me and she owed nothing to me. Really, she could have done whatever she wanted to me and I wouldn't be able to stop her! Nevertheless, all she was doing was to stare silently at me, visibly worried and hurt at my actions; she wasn't even close to crying, but her tears weren't needed for me to realize what I was doing.

...Why? Why was she just standing there, not doing anything?

She didn't deserve any of this.

But I was still doing it.

I was being harsh and rude to her.

... and because of what?

Because I couldn't help... enough...?

...

 _What am I doing? Just what the hell am I doing?_

"... e-excuse me..." I say as I avert my gaze from her, the feeling of shame having extinguished any semblance of anger I had before. Not a single trace of it remained inside me; shame and guilt was all that I had.

After entering her bedroom and closing the door without making noise, I sit on the bed to take a breather and mentally bash myself while I'm at it.

 _Losing your temper with her when she was just worrying about you... Yeah, fat lot of good you did there, shithead._

I deeply inhale through my nose and then exhale through my mouth, trying to clear my mind. It didn't seem to work at the beginning, but as I kept doing it over and over, I could feel myself calming down.

 _Okay, okay, relax. When you see her again, just sincerely ask for forgiveness. She'll forgive you... probably._

I sat there emptying my thoughts until I was ready. With my mind cleared, but still bad, I stand up and go open the door when a few knocks make me stop in my tracks.

"Naka? Are you there?" It was Rin on the other side.

"Yeah, I am. Can you come inside for a moment? I gotta talk to you." I answer her, ignoring a bitter feeling in my chest.

The door slowly opens and she peeks inside, seeing me awkwardly standing beside the bed.

I motion for her to come over. "O-over here..."

She slowly opens the door and approaches me. Now close to her, I swallow a knot stuck in my throat and speak up, "Look, it was really wrong of me to talk to you like I did before and I'm really sorry for it." then bow apologetically. "Please, forgive me!"

She stays silent for a while before speaking up. "Are you really sorry?"

"Yes, totally!"

"Hmm, I don't knooow..." She ponders. Meanwhile, I'm nervously waiting for her answer with my eyes closed.

"Okay, fine. I'll forgive you." She casually gives her answer.

I raise my head and look up at her, surprised. "R-really?!"

"Only if you never do this again, though."

"Won't happen again, promise!"

"Good. Now, come here." She then gently makes me sit on the bed by her side. "What you did earlier... Was it because of what happened back at the village?"

I nod, surprised at how easily she guessed it. "Yes, actually. How did you know?"

"Didn't you notice? It was written all over your face."

"It was, huh?" I stare at the ground. She wasn't the only one to notice that. I already knew from past situations that hiding my emotions and feelings from others was never my forte.

As I'm lost in my thoughts, she tenderly embraces me, taking me by surprise. "Look, it's really sweet of you to try and help me as much as you can, but you don't need to try so hard."

I look to my side, my hands grasping one of her arms. "Is that so?How can I help you then?"

"Just staying at my side keeping me company goes a long way." She says while resting her head on my shoulder.

"Really? Is that all?" _She just wants someone to talk to her? C'mon, there must be SOMETHING else she wants..._

"Let's see..." She turns her head to look at me, her eyes meeting mine. "You could also help me with the household chores, too. I'd really appreciate that."

 _Eh, it's not like I wasn't doing that to begin with._ "Okay, I'll keep that in mind."

"Good, good..." She narrows her eyes at me while smiling.

Knowing that everything between us was all nice and peachy again took a huge weight off my chest; I was really blessed to have her by my side in a time like this and lucky for being forgiven so easily, and staying close to her like that... Not something I'm used to, but it felt nice nonetheless. It was kinda awkward for me to turn my upper body and return the hug, so I settled with lightly resting my head on top of hers.

 _I wouldn't mind staying like that for a while, but... isn't there something we're forgetting?_

...

 _Oh, that's right._ "Hey, Rin."

"Hm?"

"Isn't the water already boiling?"

...

"Ah!" She swiftly breaks the hug and jumps off the bed, almost tripping while frantically pacing through the door, "I totally forgot about that!" and then calls out to me from the kitchen once she gets there. "Come here too! You haven't finished cutting the vegetables!"

"Sure, sure." I chuckle as I get up and go join her.

* * *

After having a meal consisting only of a warm and simple, but delicious vegetable soup, I proceed to wash the kitchen utensils in the sink while Rin sits at the table.

"Hey, thanks for the food; it tasted really good." I put a clean bow away to dry.

"I'm glad you like it." She says, leaning on her elbow while holding her forehead. "Sorry for not preparing anything more elaborate this time; it would have been annoying with this headache I'm having right now."

 _That's right, she's got a hangover, yet she still made lunch for us. And I still was giving her- no, I gotta stop with those thoughts. She forgave me and it's all cool between us now; there's no reason to feel bad about it anymore._

I turn around and lean back on the sink, placing my hands on top of it. "Er, does it hurt too much?"

She shakes her head, still looking at the tabletop. "Don't worry, I can handle it."

"Hmm, alright. Just don't push yourself too hard." _It's kinda obvious that she can handle it, but isn't there anything I can do to help? Oh, I got it!_ "Hey, how about I make some tea for you? That would make you feel better, wouldn't it?"

"That... would be very good, I think. Would you do that for me?"

"Sure, just hang in there!" I reply enthusiastically. "It'll be done in no time! Where's the kettle?"

"Inside the lower part of the cabinet beside the sink."

After getting an iron kettle from it, I fill it with water from the faucet and put it on top of the stove.

 _Good, now I just gotta- oh crap, this stove uses wood as fuel, not gas. I can't just light it like I did back at home. Uh, let's see..._

I open the faucet at the sink, wet my hand and bring it to the top of the metal plates on the stove, letting a few droplets of water drip on them. They sizzle and evaporate as soon as they come into contact, meaning the remaining firewood inside the stove hadn't gone cold yet; it would have taken way longer to heat the water if it was. To make sure the fire is strong enough, I grab a bunch of thin pieces of firewood from a box near a corner and put them inside the stove to amp up the heat.

 _Okay, the water's set for now._

"Where are the tea leaves?"

"Inside a box in the cupboard above the stove."

After grabbing it, I put it on the table and remove the lid, revealing a small assortment of leaves. I push it closer to her. "Here, pick the one you want." She'll be the one drinking it, after all.

"Thanks." She grabs it and searches for a bit before pulling out a small paper bag containing small pieces of green leaves.

"All that's left to do is to wait for the water to heat up." I pull one of the chairs and sit across from Rin.

"Good, let's talk while we wait then." She closes the box and pushes it towards the center.

I think of a topic to discuss with her, 'tea' being the first thing coming to mind. "So, uh, what kind of leaves are those?"

"Green tea leaves. Have you tasted it before?"

"Yes. Only a bit, though."

"Would you like to have some later, too? I've got more leaves here with me." She reaches out to grab the box again.

"No, thanks. I'm good." Chuckling a bit, I wave both my hands while politely declining her offer.

Hearing my answer, she pulls her hand back. "Oh, okay then. Do you not like drinking tea?"

"It's not that I don't like it, I just don't make a habit out of it, not anymore."

That last statement of mine seems to pique her interest "Hm? Did you use to drink tea?"

I nod once. "Back when I was a kid, yes. My mother used to give me black tea to drink for breakfast before school. Have you ever drank black tea before?"

She shakes her head. "Never. What taste does it have?"

"It's been years since I last drank it, but if I remember correctly..." I focus and try to reminisce about its taste, which is a bit hard to do, not because I can't remember it, but because it's easier to use something else to compare it to. Only problem is, nothing comes to my mind; that is, until I remember that we've both drank green tea before.

"The flavor is stronger when compared to green tea. The ones my mother used to buy also had a fruity scent and tasted a bit sweeter."

"A fruity scent? I bet it tasted really good."

"I liked it, and I'm pretty sure you would too. We should go to the village; maybe they sell it there."

"Yes, sounds like a good plan." She then turns her head to the stove. "Can you check the water, please?"

I get up from the table and go check it. A small cloud of steam rises as I quickly remove the kettle's lid as to not burn my hand. At the bottom of it, small bubbles had already started to form.

"It looks really hot, but it's not boiling yet." I say as I stare at it, the rising vapor slightly fogging my glasses.

"Perfect. Bring it here, then."

I grab it by the handle and, after lifting it, bring it to her, also supporting it from below with a cloth for good measure.

"Here." I slowly set it on the table, making sure to put the cloth in between the to as to not damage the wood. "Doesn't the water need to be boiling?"

"Not really. The water has to be hot, but not THAT hot." She says while carefully pouring some in her cup. "In fact, it will lose a lot of its flavor if you use boiling water."

"Huh. Didn't know about that one." I say as I watch the water level slowly approach the rim of the cup, stopping just short of it.

She sets the kettle down on the cloth. "Do you need to use boiling water to brew black tea, by any chance?"

"Yeah. That's how I think my mother used to do it, at least." _Now that I think about it, did I ever brew tea before?._ "How long until the tea's ready to drink?"

"Just a few minutes; it won't take too long." She fiddles a bit with the empty paper bag.

"Alright, let me check something then. I'll be right back." I start to get up from the table.

"Is it something important?"

"No, it's just my phone. I left it charging before taking a bath and I'm going to see how much power it has now."

"Your... foene?" She looks at me in confusion. "What is that?"

 _Wait, she doesn't know what it is?_ "It's a device I've got. I'll show it to you, just wait here." I hurriedly hurriedly walk away.

Inside the bedroom, I walk up to where I last left my phone to charge. The trail of light had moved to the right, but not enough to be out of the solar charger's way. I disconnect my phone from it and go back to the kitchen, turning on my phone as I walk.

"I'm back, sorry to keep you waiting." I sit back down on the chair and put it on top of the table.

"Is that the foene you were talking about?" She reaches out and grabs it, carefully studying every single detail. As she's doing so, the screen suddenly lights up, making her flinch. "Ahh! D-did I do something?!"

I shake my head, a bit amused at her reaction. "Nah, it just started up. Can I borrow it for a moment?"

She hands it to me and I enter the password, unlocking it. With a quick glance at the battery meter, I notice that, unfortunately, it's not even close to ten percent, which is to be expected; it was left to charge for a brief time, and with a solar charger at that.

As I'm staring at the screen, I hear Rin's voice. "So, what does it do?"

"Uh, its original purpose is to communicate with other people; I could talk to someone at the village if I wanted to. Granted, they would need to have a phone too."

"Wait, you mean, like, having a normal conversation with someone there as if they were here in this very room?"

I only give her a nod. "Spot on."

Her eyes widen a bit as she stares at the device in my hands. "Oh, that's... wow. Can it... do anything else?"

"Actually, yes! The first phones created could only make calls, but that was a long time ago and we've improved a lot ever since." _It would be hard to explain the concept of internet and GPS to her, so I should use easier examples._ "This model's not the most recent, but it can still do a lot of things, like take pictures, record sounds, write and send letters, be used as a flashlight, or even tell the time!"

"A-all inside this little thing?!" She comically blurts out while pointing at it.

I flash her a grin. "You bet, and trust me when I say that I could do so much more if I was at home. It's out of this world, really." _And maybe literally._

She can only stare at me in shock before slowly brings her hand to her forehead and staring out the window, a shocked expression etched on her face. " _... happen... outside..._ " is all I'm able to hear from her muttering.

"Er, sorry, what was that?" I ask her, thinking she was talking to me.

My voice pulls her out of her stupor as she looks back at me again. "Ah, uh, nothing important." She takes a quick look at her cup of tea, "Oh, look, the tea's ready." takes a sip from it, and then holds it out to me. "Would you like to try it?"

"I'm good, thanks."

She then kept slowly drinking her tea while I leaned back on my chair and relaxed, and, after finishing it, asked what was I going to do; I replied that I would stay in the kitchen chilling out a bit longer, so she excused herself to go take a nap in her bedroom, leaving me alone.

...

Alone, huh?

...

 _Perfect._

I wait a few minutes at the table before silently getting up and making my way to the bathroom. Inside it, I get on my knees, close my eyes, and, with a deep breath, try to clear my mind.

 _...Here am I, my Lord._

 _Thank your for this blessed day, for all the blessing and hardships given unto me, for providing me with strength to carry on despite having my life flipped turned upside down, and for... everything, I guess?_

 _Please, have mercy and forgive me for sinning against You; take my sins and purge them from me, make me righteous in your eyes once again._

 _Bless the life of my friends and family back home, those who don't have You in their hearts; of my friend Rin, who has given me shelter and worked so hard to make ends meet, of everyone I've met so far and am still going to meet, of everyone at the village... Extend your grace and mercy to us all._

 _Renew my strength, take away my worries and bring me true peace of mind. Help me better myself each day so I can live a life in accordance to Jesus' teachings. Thank you, Lord, for everything you've done up until now; Praised be your name for eternity, in the name of Jesus. Amem._

As I stood kneeled there, a warm and pleasant sensation could be felt entering my body, much like a cup of hot cocoa in a freezing night; even after I was done, I stayed there a while longer, basking in His presence.

I slowly and awkwardly get up, my ankles and knees creaking from kneeling for too long and go back to the kitchen; there, everything is totally quiet. Taking a quick look around, I notice the cup Rin had used to drink her tea was still on the table, unwashed. I take it to the sink and thoroughly wash it. That being done I go back to the bedroom, where Rin was sleeping peacefully, and plug my cellphone to the solar charger and leave the latter under the tunnel of light.

With that out of the way, there was... nothing else for me to do at the moment. Like, everything was done, and I didn't feel like I had forgotten something. What could I do now? Surely there was a way to pass the time, right?

...

 _I'll just play some Azure Striker Gunvolt on my 2DS._

* * *

 **Defective Author's note** : Alright, another chapter done, and it took less than three months this time! Good, now all I have to do is keep up the pace. This chapter is kinda uneventful, but I feel things should be a bit calmer after the last one; originally, I was close to finishing and releasing it on the 17th, but there was an unexpected problem with my laptop a few days before. My screen went crazy: it starts jittering for 3 seconds, then goes back to normal for 2 seconds, and then repeats the cycle). Anyway, that sucked really hard, so I took it to be repaired.

Good news: it's just the... "flat", I think it's called (a wire connecting the screen to the motherboard or something), that's almost snapping and causing all this literal headache as I type this. Ugh, make it stop. Oh, I can also afford replacing it, no problem, which is nice.

Bad news: They didn't have a replacement and will have to order a new one, which will arrive on the 25th, and I don't think I can start writing on it until then. Because of that, I have only proofread the chapter a bit and will post it as-is, only making necessary adjustments once all this is solved. Really sorry about that.

But seriously. This is the first time I've had to take this laptop of mine to be repaired and I've had it since early 2015! That, and it only went BSOD once, and it was because I tried running Hearthstone while playing a Youtube video on full screen, of all things! It's kind of slow and my friends poke fun at me sometimes for not buying a new one, but what can I say? I really like this one and I only plan on switching to a new one once Windows 8.1's extended support expires (early 2023). It works for me, so there's no reason to retire it for now.

Anyway, that's enough rambling from me. Thank you, especially if you've read everything up until now, and have a nice day!

 **Repaired update:** Got my laptop back yesterday (the 5th of July), and it turns out the problem was the screen. In the end, they got it replaced and I didn't have to pay for the flat that got ordered. Now, with that out of the way, let's start the engines and get this story back on track! ...Although my finals are one week from now, so I'll take it easy on the next chapter until then. Yeah.

Writing start date: 19/04/19

Writing finish date: 20/06/19

Post date: 22/06/19

Total number of words in this chapter: 7825


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